Chicago Bears: 4 reasons why the Bears will make the playoffs in 2020

No. 1 – Chicago Bears made significant Coaching Changes

The first major thing Nagy and Pace addressed in the offseason was their offensive coaching issues. Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich were both brought in with Nagy back in 2018 to get the run game going. Unfortunately, they didn’t do their jobs well in either 2018 or 2019 as Football Outsiders had the Bears run blocking ranked 28th and 29th respectively. This led to both of them seeing the door.

Both of those guys weren’t very experienced in the NFL. Nagy decided that instead of trying out the college coaches, he would hire some proven NFL coaching talents. He then went after Bill Lazor for his offensive coordinator, Juan Castillo for his offensive line coach, and John DeFilippo for his quarterbacks coach (Dave Ragone got promoted).

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Lazor has 13 years of NFL coaching experience with a variety of teams mainly as offensive coordinator or quarterback coach. He was the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals from 2017-2018 getting fired when they brought in their new head coach. Before that, he also served as offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins from 2014-2015.

Castillo may have the most impressive resume of any of the coaches on the Bears staff. Castillo has 24 years of NFL coaching experience in a variety of positions such as offensive line coach and defensive coordinator. Recently, Castillo was in Buffalo and turned their offense into an elite rushing attack as they were top 10 in the NFL in both seasons. He has had much success as a run game coordinator and offensive line coach with stints in Philadelphia and Baltimore as well.

DeFilippo is another very impressive addition to the Bears’ staff. After the 2017 season, fans were calling for DeFilippo to be hired as the head coach. Now, he is our quarterbacks coach. He struggled as an offensive coordinator in Minnesota and in Jacksonville, but he has always had success as a quarterbacks coach.

In Jacksonville, sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew lit up the NFL as a rookie under his tutelage. While he was in Minnesota, his high-flying offense had Kirk Cousins firing on all cylinders. As quarterback coach of the Eagles, he aided in the development of Carson Wentz.

All three of these additions are huge for the Bears as an offense and as maturity. These guys bring years of NFL experience contrast to the coaches before them. They should help the Bears take the next step on offense not only in the run game, but overall.