Chicago Bears: Nick Foles opens up offensive system

With Nick Foles now the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears, head coach Matt Nagy’s offense can be fully evaluated.

With Nick Foles now the starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears, head coach Matt Nagy will now have the ability to run his full offense.

One of the reasons why Foles was targeted by the Bears this past offseason is because of his knowledge of Nagy’s offense. Knowledge that now backup quarterback Mitchell Trubisky failed to grasp during his first three seasons under Nagy.

Criticism over Nagy’s offense and play call has increased over the course of the past season given the Bears’ struggle to score points. The issue is that Nagy did not have the quarterback that could operate within his system.

That is a large part of the reason why Nagy altered his offensive gameplan through the first 10 quarters of the Bears’ 2020 regular season. No longer was Nagy emphasizing taking shots downfield and instead, Nagy was handcuffed to calling short-yardage plays and emphasizing the run game.

The issue is that the Bears were not finding consistent success with that strategy. Sure, they had the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions in Week 1 and the first half against the New York Giants in Week 2 but the end result was that they were leaving too many points and opportunities on the field. Look no further than on Trubisky’s interception against the Atlanta Falcons this past Sunday:

Nagy was able to scheme Allen Robinson open but instead Trubisky failed to recognize that the Falcons were in zone coverage and threw towards tight end, Jimmy Graham. The issue is that the Falcons’ defender behind Graham was converging on the throw and that led to an easy interception.

That would be the reason why the decision was made to bench Trubisky and name Foles the starting quarterback.

With Foles now the starting quarterback for the Bears, we can now have a full and fair evaluation of Nagy’s offense. Reason being that Foles can make the plays and throws that Nagy’s system requires. Bears’ wide receiver coach Mike Furrey was pretty blunt about that fact.

Foles will now allow evaluators to determine if Nagy’s offense works and it was just the quarterback that was causing the struggles, or if Nagy’s offense is flawed.

How will this look on the field?

Instead of emphasizing the run on first and second down and then being forced to make a play on third down, Nagy will implement a horizontal passing game on the early downs in which Foles places the ball in a spot where the receivers can make a play afterward. Meaning, instead of Allen Robinson running a five-yard in where he comes back towards the ball, it will now be a slant based route in which he gets the ball in stride.

Sustained success of those routes will open up the running lanes for targeted rushing plays and often open up opportunities down the field. Opportunities in which the Bears should now be able to take advantage of as Foles is superior to Trubisky on throws downfield.

This means that in his third year as head coach of the Bears, Nagy is finally able to run his full offense without any limitations. This is an important moment for Nagy as whispers have grown just a touch a louder that he may be on the hot seat if the Bears struggle in 2020. With Foles as his quarterback and his full offense at his disposal, Nagy is in a prime position to silence the doubters of his system.

What are your thoughts on Matt Nag’s offense now that Nick Foles is starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears? Sound off in the comments section with your thoughts.