Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy’s differing schemes in 2020

The Hybrid Scheme was very different

Compared to the 2019 offense and the offense after the first few weeks, the scheme of these two offenses was night and day. The 2019 offense in Chicago lined up under center the sixth-least in the NFL on 24% of their snaps. The first three weeks of 2020, they were almost the opposite as they were seventh-highest in the NFL in under center rates with 47% of their snaps coming from under center.

Why is this a big change? Well, with the Bears under center the team was able to highlight Trubisky’s ability better. They were able to establish the run with heavy tight end sets and run play action off of it. Because of this, their rushing efficiency was much higher as well. They had a 43.9% success rate in 2019 compared to 52.6% in their hybrid scheme.

The personnel groupings changed as well as the Bears have always been a heavy 11 personnel team, but with this new scheme, the tight end sets increased greatly. The Chicago Bears ran multiple tight ends on 39% of their snaps in this scheme compared to 13.7% in 2019. Multiple tight ends was an integral part to this offense attacking the seams and using them as solid blockers.

Comparing the face stats of 2019 to 2020, the Bears only rushed for over 130 yards four times in 2019 compared to the Bears running for over 130 yards in all three of their first three games of 2020. This means the Bears finally established the run as Matt Nagy had planned unless…