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Chicago Bears: Dissecting what can work for Matt Nagy’s offense in 2020

By Cameron Henderson

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - DECEMBER 29: Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears looks on during the second quarter of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - DECEMBER 29: Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears looks on during the second quarter of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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Chicago Bears (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /

The Chicago Bears system is good but not great.

Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears run a hybrid west coast RPO offense. The Nagy offense tailors to a quarterback who can scan defenses. Reading defenses is also why Nick Foles was brought in. Matt Nagy wanted to coach the Chicago Bears because of Trubisky.

When you watch the quarterback college film, you see a kid who is running a spread-power RPO offense. What you might not pick up on though, is that Trubisky wasn’t reading the defense. A lot of his RPO reads were already predetermined in his mind. The system he ran was based on pass-catcher Bug Howard and running backs TJ Logan and Elijah Hood.

Ryan Switzer was the leading receiver on the team. Standing at 5’8, Switzer wasn’t overly fast but was a very sound route runner. He caught 96 passes for 1,112 yards.  But Switzer wasn’t what made that offense run. It was Bug Howard, that moved the needle. The 6’4 long-armed kid was known as the adjuster in the offense. Since North Carolina’s offense was a spread offense, they didn’t use a true tight end much. Howard became a practice squad tight end at the NFL level.

The adjuster in 2018 was Trey Burton. When he was unable to play in 2019, the offense suffered tremendously—this why Matt Nagy stressed tight ends. Even in 2017, Trubiksy would look his tight ends way in the red zone. Zach Miller caught his only three (technically two, we know that was a catch though) touchdowns from Trubisky. Good tight end play will help whichever quarterback wins the starting job.

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