It was the Bears’ best-executed play of the year.
Shortly after general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy wrapped up their end-of-season press conference and dodged a question on this exact subject, the Bears tweeted that they fired offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and special teams assistant Brock Olivo.
The timing was more precise than anything they did on the field, and the Bears got to dismiss this crew of fall guys without having to take answer for it.
A sampling of the questions they avoided:
Is Helfrich being fired for all the bad plays Nagy called? Was it because he allowed Nagy to set a franchise-record for fewest run plays in a game?
Is it Kevin Gilbride’s fault that Trey Burton got hurt and Pace’s second-round pick of Adam Shaheen has been a bust?
Is Harry Hiestand to blame for sinking $130 million worth of contract extensions into an offensive line that struggled all season?
Actually, in a media session that exists to give real answers about the failure of an 8-8 season and how the Bears intend to fix it, they were asked about shaking up his staff. Nagy acted as though he hadn’t gotten to that part of his to-do list yet.
”That’s a better question for Matt,” Pace said.
Sure. Let’s try him.
“We are working through that,” Nagy said. “Just being so fresh to being out of this, we are going to look at everything right now.”
When pressed on whether those moves need to made quickly since teams around the NFL are filling out their staffs, Nagy deflected again.
”It all depends, you know,” he said. “It’s my job to make sure the reflection process is done the right way. Regardless of the timeline, we want to make sure that they are the right decisions.”
It seemed likely there would be fallout for the Bears’ offensive coaches after the team finished 29th in points (17.5 per game) and total yards (296.8).
There’s skepticism as to whether firing Helfrich is the solution. Cumulatively, in Nagy’s two seasons as coach and play caller, the Bears are 21st in scoring and 26th in yardage.
Hiring a new offensive coordinator will be an interesting endeavor. Nagy runs the offense, Dave Ragone has been Mitch Trubisky’s position coach since the day they drafted him and they have former Vikings head coach Brad Childress on staff as an advisor.
From potential candidates’ perspective, that leaves a lesser role compared to some other expected coordinator openings in the league.
