Chicago Bears: 5 Hot takes on the Bears playoff chances, Khalil Mack, and more
By Evan Bruner
Chicago Bears Hot take: Bill Lazor is not a good offensive play-caller
Ever since the start of the 2019 season, the Bears have struggled with predictable and basic play calling. It got bad enough in 2020 that coach Matt Nagy turned over play-calling responsibilities to Bill Lazor in a last-ditch effort to save his job.
It worked, and the Bears made the playoffs. After the Bears’ disastrous offensive showing against the Browns in Week 3, Nagy once again turned to Lazor to call plays, and once again, the offense looked noticeably better. The million-dollar question here is if Lazor truly is a good play-caller, or if Nagy has set the bar so low, fans aren’t as critical as they should be.
Bill Lazor has limited games calling plays with the Bears
There are many things that make Bill Lazor’s play-calling difficult to evaluate, mainly due to the limited sample size. Lazor only called a handful of games at the end of 2020 and now has started to make some calls this year.
Additionally, this is still Nagy’s scheme, so Lazor still doesn’t have complete control of the offense. As more time goes on, we will likely get a better idea of Lazor’s offense, but I still think we are learning his capabilities.
Bill Lazor has done a good job adjusting to his personnel
One thing that has been evident with Lazor is his willingness to adjust his play calls to accommodate his players. One example of this was with Mitchell Trubisky in 2020. Trubisky struggled with reading defenses and throwing accurately throughout his career, and that was part of the reason he struggled so much when Nagy called plays.
Nagy took someone who was not suited to be a pocket passer and tried to make him into one because that’s what he wanted. Lazor seemed more understanding of Trubisky’s limitations and ran more rollouts that created easier reads and throws for Trubisky. This type of creativity is something that just hasn’t been evident when Nagy is calling plays.
Bottom line
Bill Lazor is a good enough play-caller to get by for now. I don’t think he’s a great one, but he’s better than Nagy, and that’s all that matters right now.