For a majority of the 2020 NFL season, the Bears’ offense struggled to do much of anything.
From linemen missing their blocks, to quarterbacks making the wrong reads to wide receivers dropping passes, Chicago’s offense featured it all.
Two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Allen Robinson was the outlier, though.
Despite the excessive amount of dysfunction around the Bears’ offense last season, Robinson had 1,250 receiving yards, finished third in lowest drop percentage among wide receivers and placed sixth overall in receiving first downs.
Robinson achieved success in Matt Nagy’s offense, but it didn’t come without its challenges. On the Cris Collinsworth Podcast, Robinson was transparent about the difficulties with having to adapt to Mitch Trubisky’s and Nick Foles’ playing styles.
“For us it’s like we ran two different schemes,” Robinson said. “We had two different people calling the plays. You’re trying to learn and adjust to two different people on the fly. Nick, when he gets to the line, he likes to get you into the right play, into the right looks and things like that. He’s very gung-ho on checks and adjustments at the line of scrimmage. So for guys, that’s something that guys had to get used to. Even some of the young guys being in their playbooks non-stop because Nick if he sees something, he’s gonna get to you know, a block block flat. If he sees a possible nickel blitz or something like that or he might get to a screen … so it’s like the whole playbook is open — you know at any point in time.
And then also when you have Mitch, you know, the scheme is a little bit different. We want to use his athleticism some more. Some of the different concepts that we bring into and kind of evolve as an offense are a little different. Last year we had a new offensive coordinator as well. As we’re coming into training camp, we’re kind of learning his system (Bill Lazor’s). Then once Nick came in, we’re kind of going back to a different kind of system, more of a west coast style. So it was a lot last year, and it was something that you know for myself, I definitely underestimated, as far as the impact that it may have having two different quarterbacks. And playing at multiple kinds of schemes, so it was tough a little bit sometimes last year.”
Robinson’s stats don’t illustrate exactly how challenging it was to adapt to polar opposite schemes, but it’s obvious other members on the offense didn’t translate as effectively.
There were several players that regressed, including Anthony Miller, Charles Leno Jr., Bobby Massie, Trubisky and Foles. That’s not to say that those individuals only failed because of the scheme, but having those inconsistencies within the offense definitely didn’t help.
Most likely, the Bears will end up with a new quarterback for this upcoming season. Which would mean more adapting is yet to come.
But if that new quarterback happens to be, let’s say, a Russell Wilson, then there wouldn’t be much turnover. Instead, there would be stability not only in the offense but at the quarterback position — something Chicago has been striving to find for the last 70 years.
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