Bears' Assistant Coach Purge Was Bad Form and Reeks of Scapegoating

The Chicago Bears delivered some fairly stunning news on Tuesday when it was disclosed that they fired offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich and three other assistants -- tight end's coach Kevin Gilbride, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, and special teams assistant Brock Olivo.

While we don't necessarily disagree with the organization's efforts to clean house, when you read the tea leaves you'll come across a rancid stench of scapegoating.

Can you remember a pass-catching tight end being on the field at all for the Bears in 2019? And last time we checked, Matt Nagy was calling Chicago's offense.

So the #Bears waited until after the news conference to scapegoat an offensive coordinator who didn’t call plays, a tight ends coach with no tight ends and O-line coach who was given bad players. Now that's execution.
— Barry Rozner (@BarryRozner) December 31, 2019

Starting TE Trey Burton was limited to just eight games (five starts) this season due to injuries, and he still led the position in receptions with a lowly 14. We're really supposed to blame Gilbride because he didn't morph the likes of Ben Braunecker, Jesper Horsted, and Adam Shaheen into world-beaters?

That REEKS of making Gilbride the fall guy for Nagy's inability to conduct a competent offense. For those curious, the Bears offense ranked 29th in terms of yards per game (296.8) and 29th in terms of points per game (17.5)

The #Bears have parted ways with the following coaches:
Kevin Gilbride (TE)
Mark Helfrich (OC)
Harry Hiestand (OL)
Brock Olivo (Asst. ST)
— Chicago Bears (@BearsPR) December 31, 2019

We're not saying Helfrich was perfect, but to make him the scapegoat for Nagy's failed project is preposterous.

We could ramble on for hours on this subject, but we'll bite our tongues for now.

The bottom line here is that Chicago devotees shouldn't let the Bears front office deceive them into thinking this was the right string of dismissals. They have every right to be incensed.