Chicago Bears: New-look offense will be welcome change in 2018

With an overhaul of the offense nearly complete, the Chicago Bears will have a whole new look and identity in 2018, so much so that it may appear unrecognizable to fans when the season kicks off in September.

When Ryan Pace hired Matt Nagy as head coach of the Chicago Bears in January, he did it with the idea that the offensive-minded Nagy would build around second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

The duo immediately went to work on re-creating the supporting cast that would best fit the offensive scheme and put Trubisky in a position to succeed.

Pace aggressively attacked free-agency with a plan to surround Trubisky with as many playmakers as possible. And thus far, it appears that he has done that.

The additions of Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Trey Burton are immediate upgrades to a passing game that was almost non-existent in 2017. Add them to an offense that already has Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen, Cameron Meredith (hopefully), Adam Shaheen and Kevin White (maybe) and suddenly Trubisky has an extremely versatile supporting cast.

Now it’s a matter of Nagy putting all of these pieces together within his offense and playing to Trubisky’s strengths. As noted by Dan Durkin the Athletic Chicago, Nagy’s offense is complex and demands a lot out of the quarterback.

Durkin isn’t the only one who has discussed the complexity of Nagy’s offense. Newly acquired quarterback, Chase Daniel, who played under Nagy with the Kansas City Chiefs, knows first-hand about the intricacies of the offense.

And he believes that Trubisky has the intelligence and ability to thrive in it.

“[Matt Nagy’s system] puts a lot on the quarterback,” said Daniel. “Just barely talking to Mitch right after I signed [last week], he’s up for the task, and that’s something that, I think, when a quarterback takes accountability in any offense, especially this offense, it’s going to thrive and the players are going to gravitate toward him like they already have toward Mitch.”

One thing seems to be likely with Nagy’s offense is that the majority of plays will be run from the shotgun formation. If so, this will be a radical departure from the offense run by the previous regime.

According to Durkin via Pro Football Focus, Kansas City was in the shotgun formation for over 73 percent of their snaps in 2017 (2nd to only Detroit Lions) and those numbers actually increased once Nagy took over the play-calling duties. This is a direct reflection of the run-pass options (RPOs) that he likes to utilize within his system.

One of the main reasons that former Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich was hired as the new offensive coordinator was because of his past experience with the shotgun. Helfrich ran his entire offense out of the shotgun while at Oregon and a good chunk of the plays were RPOs.

While Trubisky didn’t run this type of offense last season with the Bears, he did run a similar scheme during his time at North Carolina. So the scheme isn’t something that is completely foreign to him. He has the natural instincts and ability to excel in this type of offense.

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And now he has the type of weapons to help him. Robinson, Gabriel and Burton all bring something to the table that the Chicago Bears did not have last season.

Providing he’s healthy, Robinson is a true No. 1 receiver that runs crisp routes and can go up and get the ball. Gabriel can stretch the defense with his speed and open up the field. And Burton is a proven pass-catching tight end who is almost like a wide receiver in terms of athletic ability.

Let’s not forget that the Chicago Bears also bring back one of the top backs in the league in Howard and one of the most electrifying and versatile offensive weapons in Cohen. Both of these guys should certainly benefit from the new scheme.

Next: Bears post-free agency mock draft

The bottom line is that Chicago Bears fans should expect to see a much different offense than they have been accustomed to recently. The days of the predictable run-run-pass Bears offense appear to be a thing of the past.

And that in itself is something that Bears fans should celebrate.