Chicago Bears: Who is to blame for offensive coordinator dilemma?

The Chicago Bears are still without an offensive coordinator. Reports are that front-runner, Pat Shurmur is electing to become the offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos. Who is to blame for the lack of appeal of becoming the Bears offensive coordinator?

Yikes, reports came out that the Chicago Bears were interested in hiring Pat Shurmur as their new offensive coordinator to replace Matt Helfrich. Reports also came out how Shurmur may have had mutual interest, but wanted to see what other position may become available first. Well, now it seems he has chosen to work with Vic Fangio in Denver over coming here to the Windy City.

What does this say about the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator vacancy? When I look at the Bears roster on offense versus the Broncos roster on offense, it seems an easy choice to me on who I would prefer to coach, but then again I am biased.

It seems that two people are to blame for this offensive coordinator dilemma, but is one person to blame more than the other? Could it be that Pat Shurmur was not interested in coaching Mitchell Trubisky? Shurmur saw the Bears offense at work both in 2018 and in 2019.

In 2018, Chase Daniel was under center as Trubisky recovered from a shoulder injury. Daniel threw for 285 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The Bears would go on to lose in overtime. In 2019, Shurmur saw Trubisky at work. The outcome was almost identical. Trubisky threw for 278 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Is it possible that Shurmur thinks Drew Lock has more potential and is better than Trubisky?

The other possibility is that Shurmur saw how poor the offense was here in Chicago as both quarterbacks produced almost identical numbers versus his Giants. Tie in the fact that Matt Nagy is not likely to hand over play-calling duties and you can easily see why Shurmur would prefer to coach in Denver under Fangio. Shurmur will likely have full creative control of the offense.

Now the Bears are stuck with hiring Bill Lazor as their offensive coordinator. Yes, as I was writing this, reports broke that Lazor is now taking over for Helfrich. If rumors were true about Helfrich and Harry Heistand being in charge of the running game, then this move makes some sense despite Lazor not being a hot-ticket name.

Lazor was out of a job in 2019, but his latest stints as offensive coordinator came with the Bengals (2017-2018) and the Miami Dolphins (2014-2015). While with the Bengals, the team was about average running the football. In 2018, the Bengals were 14th in Offensive DVOA running the football and 20th in 2017.

While in Miami, Lazor had even more success running the ball. In 2015, the Dolphins were 13th in Offensive DVOA running the football and in 2014, the team was second. In comparison, the Bears have been 19th (2018) and 29th (2019) in Offensive DVOA running the football under Nagy.

Not to mention, Lazor was in Philadelphia during Nick Foles breakout season where he threw 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions. He was also in Miami when Ryan Tannehill threw for over 4,000 yards, 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

I am still on the fence here with this hire. As I was alluding to before the Lazor hire, I believe Nagy was more at fault for the offensive coordinator dilemma than having Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback. If Matt Nagy is going to keep calling the plays, not many people are going to be interested in the coordinator position.

The Lazor hire makes sense though and we will see what changes take place to the offense between now and September. I am extremely interested in the way the running game shapes up between now and next season.