NEWSLETTER
While the Bears have added two quarterbacks who have a firm grasp of Matt Nagy’s system, there is only one free agent addition who knows Nagy’s offense and has a Super Bowl touchdown on his record.
During Thursday’s introductory press conference, tight end Trey Burton seemed pretty confident in knowing the playbook that will be coming his way: “I don’t have to learn a new offense,” Burton said, via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune. “I basically know the whole thing. Ninety-five percent of the playbook, I already know.”
Burton is coming from the Philadelphia Eagles, who are coached by Doug Pederson, who was the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator when Nagy was the team’s quarterbacks coach. So it would make sense if the coaches had similar ideologies, plays, and terminology.
Burton’s knowledge of Pederson’s version of the offense should come in hand as Nagy implements his own system. As we’ve learned while watching John Fox-coached teams in recent years, the little things tend to add up. And when they don’t add up in your team’s favor, everything can fall apart rather quickly. Ideally, Burton’s grasp of the offense gives him the kind of leg up that can jump-start the passing game.
Obviously, there will be differences. No two teams can run exactly the same things (and Nagy already indicated that he’ll have to tailor things to fit the strengths of this particular Bears roster), but having the base of the offense come from the Super Bowl champs counts as a good start as we collectively move away from the Dowell Loggains era.
And just to make sure all the right things are driven home to quarterback Mitch Trubisky, the team signed Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray as backups. Because the coaching staff’s connection with their starting quarterback is limited during the offseason due to rules in the CBA, having two player-coach types in Daniel and Bray can help move things along until everyone can get together at Halas Hall again.
