Bears OL - square pegs into round holes?

PolarBear

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 8, 2013
Posts:
4,711
Liked Posts:
2,811
This is a topic that I want to bring up but I also want to defer to some more of the football guys because my knowledge of blocking systems etc is limited. It’s also got to do purely with the run blocking.

To my knowledge, the change to a more of a man blocking/power in the run game under Nagy has caused problems for our offensive line and I think we saw this at the start of last year with Howard until they started to mix some more inside zone and we saw some more success.

This year with no Howard, it was a full shift to what Nagy wants to do and I believe our personnel is simply not suited too.

I will start with Leno and Daniels. These guys are much better fits as zone blocking offensive lineman where they can utilise their athleticism. These two guys aren’t 1 on 1 people movers. They work better going laterally because they are so much better at it th

Cody whitehair is in a similar boat but too a lesser extent. Whitehair’s best asset is his athleticism and while he is stronger than Daniels and Leno, he is a better fit in more of a zone blocking system.

Kyle Long was simply finished - he lacked athleticism and power to move anyone or anything.

Massie’s biggest asset is his size and he is limited no matter what scheme he is in because he is t athletic and he doesn’t have a lot of power.

So we have a couple problems that have lead to this:

1. Pace resigned Massie who is not a good T to a contract where he makes good money.

2. Pace resigned Leno to a big extension based on what he did with Fox and last year when he simply doesn’t fit what Nagy wants to be able to do. I think Leno is better than he showed in pass pro this year but he isn’t somebody who fits a man/power blocking scheme.

3. Pace drafted an offensive lineman in Daniels who doesn’t fit what Nagy wants to do.

4. Nagy shows he was not flexible this year with his scheme.

One or two things need to happen - an overhaul of personnel or an overhaul of scheme otherwise this running game is going to be lackluster again in 2020.
 

Visionman

Well-known member
Joined:
Aug 28, 2017
Posts:
7,995
Liked Posts:
4,451
I'm not going to speak to the scheme but rather to the thought that Pace drafted/re-signed guys and badically forced them on Nagy. I do not think that is the case. Nagy is the coach, and he has a major say in who gets drafted and re-signed.

We can argue both Nagy and Pace can't evaluate OL talent, but not that they may have been at odds with each other...
 

PolarBear

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 8, 2013
Posts:
4,711
Liked Posts:
2,811
I'm not going to speak to the scheme but rather to the thought that Pace drafted/re-signed guys and badically forced them on Nagy. I do not think that is the case. Nagy is the coach, and he has a major say in who gets drafted and re-signed.

We can argue both Nagy and Pace can't evaluate OL talent, but not that they may have been at odds with each other...

Also a possible option. I think it’s also unlikely Pace and Nagy weren’t on the same page and more that Nagy would struggle evaluating OL. The Bears drafted Leno and Whitehair under the guidance of Fox/Gase who seem like guys who have more experience in evaluating OL talent.
 

PolarBear

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 8, 2013
Posts:
4,711
Liked Posts:
2,811
Nagy is going to cause misery for several years.......unless fired. His inability to not to take responsibility for his garbage offense is a joke. Get a new OC that fits the players we have and be a HC

Fit the players to your scheme or scheme to your players. Either one.


You can’t just try and make your scheme work with anybody
 

dennehy

Well-known member
Joined:
Dec 29, 2015
Posts:
11,027
Liked Posts:
12,343
Location:
Jewels to get a case of Squirt
Most of Jordan Howard's damage was done in the outside zone, with some inside mixed in, under Fox. He was better at inside zone than power, but the off tackle style outside zone play was his bread and butter.

I think that is the way to go, what this OL can do best. Other than maybe Massie, none of these guys are road graders who like to line up and knock guys off the ball. They're athletic guys who want to get in the way and get to the second level. I would l like to bring in someone with Shanahan roots to run the offense. But I doubt that will happen.
 

msadows

Well-known member
Joined:
Aug 23, 2012
Posts:
22,106
Liked Posts:
16,809
Fit the players to your scheme or scheme to your players. Either one.


You can’t just try and make your scheme work with anybody

Thats what I do in Madden. Must be why my team goes 4-12 ;(
 

Bears4Ever_34

Well-known member
Joined:
Aug 24, 2012
Posts:
13,529
Liked Posts:
10,010
Get rid of the power blocking scheme and go back to zone blocking. They were a pretty decent run team for a few years under Fox/Gase before the switch was made. They just don't have a physically imposing enough OL to run the stuff Nagy wants to run.

If it were up to me, just copy Kyle Shanahan's run scheme, because it seems like every team that runs a scheme like that, almost always ends up having a really good run game.
 

Chicago4Life

Well-known member
Joined:
Aug 24, 2012
Posts:
3,419
Liked Posts:
1,916
imo nagy doesnt care whether its power or zone blocking, he wanted to run power plays like hunt did with the chiefs...he gave into running more outside zone just to have some resemblance of a run game.

this year he gave helfrich and hiestand the responsibility of implementing a run game, the problem there is you have one coach who is primarily used to a gimmick college offense and another who oversaw college pro style offenses.

Clearly it didnt work for anyone on the oline, if you saw any of the vidoes of the tape doesnt lie it was evident players didnt know what they were doing half the time and sometimes even the play didnt make sense.

Nagy surrounded himself with a diverse staff thinking that it would generate a lot of creativity but it backfired badly...now nagy is trying to surround himself with people that hes worked with so they know exactly what hes trying to execute and what it takes to execute his system aka reids system.
 

NCChiFan

Bald, fat, toothless
Donator
Joined:
Mar 29, 2012
Posts:
10,720
Liked Posts:
4,973
O line looked confused often with blocking assignments and worse where overpowered often when placed in one on one situations due, often, to bad technique. This is a huge problem. Until this is fixed it does not matter who the QB is or who the RB is.
 

xvflutop

Member
Joined:
Feb 7, 2016
Posts:
65
Liked Posts:
90
2. Pace resigned Leno to a big extension based on what he did with Fox and last year when he simply doesn’t fit what Nagy wants to be able to do. I think Leno is better than he showed in pass pro this year but he isn’t somebody who fits a man/power blocking scheme.
I would agree on the running side, but Leno was awful in pass pro as well. It's hard to do a lot on offense when your QB is getting hit while throwing on a 3 step drop.
 

Top