Bears Fire Offensive Coordinator Mark Helfrich and 3 Other Assistant Coaches

The Chicago Bears have begun to clean house, as the team has announced that they will not be retaining the services of numerous offensive assistants for 2020, including offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich.

The departure of Helfrich is interesting, as the former University of Oregon coach had been the team's offensive boss for the first two seasons of Matt Nagy's regime, the first of which produced an NFC North title.

Following last year's division-winning season, many expected the Bears to once again contend in 2019. Thanks to countless struggles on the offensive side of the ball, however, the team fell short with a disappointing 8-8 campaign. As a whole, virtually every aspect of the team's offense took a step back, with the Bears finishing 29th in total yards per game (296.8) out of 32 NFL teams.

It was clear that the team had to make some changes on the staff. Helfrich's work with Mitchell Trubisky was notable given that the QB completed 66.2% of his passes for 3,223 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2018. Unfortunately, that production did not translate over to this season, as Trubisky completed just 63.2% of his passes for 17 touchdowns and 3,138 yards despite playing in one more game than he did in 2018.

While Helfrich was not technically the playcaller for the team while employed as offensive coordinator, his influence on the team's direction was clear, as Chicago's offense often times resembled the spread system that Helfrich deployed while at Oregon. Now, with several new faces inbound, the new look of Nagy's offense in 2020 will be an interesting subplot to monitor.