Chicago Bears Have Never Had a More QB-Friendly Staff
By Erik Lambert
Most teams are looking at the Philadelphia Eagles as the new standard of quarterback development. The Chicago Bears paid attention.
One of the brilliant things the Eagles did was to stack their coaching deck. That is to say, they had a true quarterback expert at every meaningful level of their staff. Doug Pederson was a longtime backup quarterback in the NFL and coaches quarterbacks for years on top of that before being hired as head coach. Frank Reich, their offensive coordinator, was one of the best backup QBs in league history and traveled the same path in coaching as Pederson. Last but not least was John DeFilippo, considered one of the sharpest quarterback coaches in the business.
It’s hard to argue with the results. Between the regular season and playoffs, the Eagles quarterbacks of Carson Wentz and Nick Foles threw for 3,967 yards, 38 touchdowns, and just nine interceptions. Foles was brilliant in the postseason with six TD passes and just one pick. So much of that elite execution must be attributed to having so many helpful voices in his ears. All of those men knew how quarterbacks think and thus understood right away how to communicate what was needed to him.
The Bears have followed this example quite well.
Bears offensive staff has never been more QB-friendly
People like to say that the Bears are terrible at picking quarterbacks. This is somewhat true but it’s also just half the story. Part of their problem has also been the inability to construct an offensive staff built to elevate the position. Most of their notable hires on the offensive side in the past were often geared towards running backs or offensive line. Sure there might be a QB guy sprinkled in somewhere, but never enough to make a true difference. That changed in a big way this year. Just look at the setup Mitch Trubisky has going into 2018.
Matt Nagy (Head coach)
- Played QB in college and Arena League
- Coached Alex Smith to three Pro Bowls in Kansas City
Mark Helfrich (Offensive coordinator)
- Played QB in college
- Turned Andrew Walter into 3rd round pick at Arizona State
- Turned Marcus Mariota into #2 overall pick at Oregon
Brad Childress (Offensive consultant)
- Played QB in college
- Developed Donovan McNabb into a Pro Bowler at Philadelphia
- Got a career-best season from Brett Favre at Minnesota
- Helped Nagy with Smith in Kansas City
Dave Ragone (QBs coach)
- Played QB in college, NFL, and NFL Europe
- Coached Jake Locker to career-best season for Titans
- Coached Matt Barkley to career-best season for Bears
For starters, all four men have the advantage of having actually played the position at some point in their lives. They know what it’s like to take snaps from center and having to lead a team. Throw in the vast plethora of coaching experience on top of it? This is a virtual gold mine for a young buck like Trubisky. He can throw a stone in any direction now and hit a true QB guru. If he’s truly spongelike in his thirst for knowledge on how to be an NFL quarterback, then he’s got all resources he could ever want around him.
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Is he destined to be a franchise quarterback for Chicago? That’s for him to answer. Still, credit the Bears for giving him a big advantage towards reaching that goal.