Mark Helfrich’s Influence Is Already Being Felt in Matt Nagy’s Offense

Tarik Cohen recently jumped on the Jim Rome Show, where he expressed some excitement and optimism regarding what is coming down the line for the Chicago Bears’ offense.

The folks at ChiCitySports.com have a video snippet, of which this quote stood out the most:

Cohen’s reference to college concepts (specifically, run-pass option plays) is noteworthy here. He certainly isn’t the first one to make it a point to talk about the implementation of these concepts. As early as January, we started feeling out how this could bring a positive impact to the offense’s development. More recently, Mitch Trubisky has discussed them as part of something he is looking forward to utilizing in the new offense. And Trey Burton sees them as “unguardable plays” when executed properly.

While it’s too early to know the full extent of Mark Helfrich’s impact is, but it’s evident that his imprint on the offense will be seen often this season. And that Helfrich and Matt Nagy are sending the same message through different styles suggests some big things could be coming down the line.

Back in May, Trubisky raved about Helfrich’s smarts, detail-oriented style, and creativeness in a piece by Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times. In the same story, Cohen expressed excitement about going to work in Helfrich’s offense because his offense was full of surprises.

“He’s just a bag full of tricks,” Cohen said. “You never know what plays he’s going to have out here to install. You’re coming into work excited about what the day’s going to bring.”

That phrasing should ring a bell because it’s ridiculously similar to something Matt Nagy said to Peter King that we highlighted back in March:

“When you (introduce new plays and concepts), not only is that advantage offense, but you’re also spicing it up for the players. You can feel it in practice,” Nagy said. “These guys are out there dancing and having fun, and when you install this play on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and when you put the play up on the board and they’ve never seen it before the amount of attention that is redirected to that board because it’s such a new play and a different play. They look forward to going to practice and to practice that play.”

The Bears don’t figure to run one of those relentless no-huddle attacks that are often synonymous with spread offenses, but the creative concepts that bring out mismatches that favor the offense are expected to be on the horizon.

This should mean more explosive plays from players like Cohen, Burton, Jordan Howard, and Allen Robinson, among others. As well as a higher rate of efficiency from Trubisky. And we can’t wait to see that in action.

written by

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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