Chicago Bears: Pat Shurmur is the right hire for Trubisky

The Chicago Bears are yet to find their new offensive coordinator. A rumored candidate is former Giants coach Pat Shurmur. That is a good hire for the team, here’s why.

Pat Shurmur hasn’t had much success as an NFL head coach. That is a given. He has coached 65 games as a head coach, winning only 19 of those games. His longest jobs were with the Cleveland Browns and the New York Giants. He went 9-23 as their coach for each franchise. The other win came as the Philadelphia Eagles interim head coach in 2015. So, overall, Shurmur is 19-46 as a head coach.

The best quality Shurmur does have though is getting the most out of his quarterbacks. To keep it short for his time as the Browns coach, the four quarterbacks he dealt with had some of their best games as a starter. If that’s even possible. Shurmur coached Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, and Thad Lewis. Let’s give Shurmur a pass on his time in Cleveland. The best thing we can say is, it was a good learning experience for him.

After Cleveland, he became an offensive coordinator for the Eagles. As an Eagle, he got the best out of Nick Foles and Sam Bradford. Foles had 40 touchdowns in two seasons with Shurmur. He went 14-4 as a starter during that time. Bradford didn’t have the same winning success, but he did throw almost as many touchdowns.

Bradford as an Eagle in 2015 threw 20 touchdowns. In 2016, both him and Shurmur went to Minnesota and he had another big season. Bradford didn’t play the whole season but he did throw 19 touchdowns. That is 39 touchdowns during a two-season stretch, not too bad for a quarterback who didn’t do too much in his career.

The biggest accomplishment he should get more credit for is the 2017 Vikings. The last year of him being an offensive coordinator saw him take Case Keenum to the NFC Championship. Keenum and the Vikings won 13 games. He threw a career-high 22 touchdowns and was one game away from playing in the Super Bowl.

After the loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship, Shurmur signed with the Giants. He was their coach during the last two seasons. What he did with Daniel Jones last season was magical. The team didn’t make the playoffs or even get close, but Jones improved as a player a lot. In his first season in the NFL, he threw 24 touchdowns in 13 games as the starter. Oh, and the Giants didn’t have the best weapons in the world for Jones to throw to.

So yes, Shurmur wasn’t a great coach, but he has done well with really bad quarterbacks. He doesn’t have what it takes to be an NFL head coach but he has been really successful as a coordinator.

If he becomes the next Chicago Bears‘ offensive coordinator, he brings a lot of experience. He can help Matt Nagy mature as a head coach and make the offense better. What he needs to do is call plays for the team. He would be a successful offensive play-caller for this team.

The Bears have a lot of pieces on the offensive side of the ball, they just need to put them all together. If Mitchell Trubisky can get a coordinator like Shurmur, he will have a great turnaround season. Trubisky is better than most of the guys named on the list. This would be a big hire for the team and is very necessary.

Hopefully, Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy make the right decision this offseason. Hire Shurmur and fix some holes the offense has. Trubisky still can be a solid quarterback. It just takes a guy like Shurmur to get that next level out of him.