Chicago Bears: Grading the 2018 offseason through four games

The Chicago Bears made it through the first quarter of the season off to the best start they’ve had in five years. That is something nobody saw coming.

Can much of it be attributed to the 2018 offseason they had? Perhaps with the bye week at hand this would be the perfect time to look back, evaluate and grade every significant move the team made from last January through to September. There were a lot of them. More than felt like normal for a team. Perhaps that’s because there was a sense of urgency from GM Ryan Pace. Greater than at any other time in his tenure.

Was he rewarded? Let’s find out, starting with the men he brought in to pick up where John Fox and his staff left off.

COACHING HIRES

Matt Nagy (Head coach):  A-

The man was handed a difficult situation right off the bat. Nagy took over a team that hasn’t had a winning season in six years and hasn’t made the playoffs in eight. They also were forced to play a fifth preseason game due to their selection in the Hall of Fame game. Combine that with the pressure of trying to elevate a former #2 overall pick at quarterback in Mitch Trubisky and then suffering a brutal collapse in the opener against Green Bay? Rough. Yet the Bears are 3-1 and starting to click. That’s impressive.

Mark Helfrich (Offensive coordinator):  C+

There was a lot of concern when the Bears chose Helfrich as their offensive coordinator. He’d been out of football in 2017 after being fired by Oregon. He also had never coached on the NFL level before. Everything about him signaled big risk. Through the first few games, the offense seemed discombobulated at times, getting too cute with their play designs and falling in love with screens. A staple of Helfrich’s time in college. Thankfully he seemed to figure some things out and employed it to devastating effect against the Buccaneers.

Vic Fangio (Defensive coordinator):  A

Re-signing him was one of the biggest wins of the entire offseason for Chicago. Everybody has seen why. This is the best Bears defense we’ve seen in at least a decade and perhaps longer. It leads the NFL in sacks and ranks top 5 in almost every other category. They have eight interceptions in four games, which is the same number they had all of last year. It’s a monster truck running over offenses and Fangio is the driver.

Chris Tabor (Special teams coordinator):  B

The best thing that can be said about the Bears special teams is they’ve done nothing memorable. That means they’ve avoided any huge mistakes. In truth, the units under Tabor have been solid across the board. They’ve covered kicks and punts well. Pat O’Donnell might be having his best year as a pro and the field goal team has been near perfect thus far. Perhaps this is validation for Tabor whom many think was wrongfully run out of town in Cleveland last year.