The big trap the Chicago Bears could fall into when hiring an OC
Remember how the Chicago Bears ran their offense back in 2006?
Circling back to my concerns about another Bears WCO play-caller, here is a history lesson. In the Bears’ last Super Bowl appearance in 2006, Ron Turner was the Bears’ offensive coordinator. Entering the Super Bowl he had been an NFL OC for six years.
That season the Bears only scored 11 touchdowns running and 11 touchdowns passing. Including offense and defense, the team averaged a bit over 17 points per game. They also scored 17 points in the Super Bowl. These 22 touchdowns in 16 games were done with the number one NFL defense that created a lot of turnovers. Even considering that it was played for the most part in a rainstorm, the play calling in that Super Bowl was maddeningly conservative.
This was a prime example of a WCO guy over-relying on play-it-safe play calls in a big game and losing. Flash forward to the present day and we are apparently, looking at another play-it-safe play-caller taking over the Bears offense. This is quite discouraging. It takes a large amount of courage and willpower to win a Super Bowl. The passionately loyal Bears fans deserve an offensive coordinator who has an abundance of both.
If this scenario is how it plays out, then I am going to be extremely irritated. The 36-year-old Ryan Poles in his first job as general manager chose a head coach with a defensive-minded approach in good part for this reason. He likes and trusts his choice for a head coach because they got to know each other from having the same agent.
Yet when it comes to Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus choosing an offensive coordinator, having the same agent does not influence their decision. Instead, the defensive head coach is overly concerned about protecting his defense by going in this direction. He chooses an OC who is less likely to create turnovers because he runs a risk-averse offense.
This would be Bears history repeating itself to this degree. It is the Bears players and the fans getting blasted with both barrels of the shotgun because their new general manager and head coach made a decision based on their comfort zone as opposed to making the best possible decision.