UA-59049186-1 Welcome to Chicago: Bill Lazor, Offensive Coordinator - Good if it Goes

Welcome to Chicago: Bill Lazor, Offensive Coordinator

After Pat Shurmur passed on Chicago for an OC job that includes play calling duties in Denver, Chiefs QB coach Mike Kafka was rumored to be the next man up. The firing of John DiFilippo in Jacksonville looked like it may throw a monkey wrench into those plans, but before your author could even post anything about that potential hire, the Bears had already hired Bill Lazor.

Word is that Lazor was Nagy’s first choice for the job in 2018, but after Cincinnati kept him, Nagy settled on Mark Helfrich. Was he the first choice this time? Doesn’t appear that way. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog said on Twitter that the Bears had a deal done with Shurmur last week, but that fell apart after other jobs opened up. Meanwhile, Lazor was working as a special advisor at Penn State this year and could have been hired at any time.

Lazor has been an OC twice before, with the Dolphins in 2014 and 2015 and with the Bengals in 2017 in 2018. Here are his offenses’ DVOAs with the years before and after his tenure included.

MIA 2013: -1.8% (18th), Pass: 4.0% (20th), Run: -4.3% (18th)
MIA 2014 (Lazor): 10.1% (8th), Pass: 19.4% (11th), Run: 9.6% (2nd)
MIA 2015 (Lazor): -7.3% (22nd), Pass: 1.0% (24th), Run: -6.3% (13th)
MIA 2016: 1.8% (14th), Pass: 14.1% (16th), Run: -3.9% (17th)

CIN 2016: 7.5% (11th), Pass: 20.8% (11th), Run: 0.3% (13th)
CIN 2017 (Lazor): -6.5% (22nd), Pass: 1.3% (21st), Run: -10.3% (20th)
CIN 2018 (Lazor): -3.3% (19th), Pass: 9.5% (18th), Run: -3.6% (14th)
CIN 2019: -16.5% (29th), Pass: -12.9% (28th), Run: -9.7% (22nd)

So that’s somewhat less than encouraging. Miami’s coach during Lazor’s time there was Joe Philbin, who’s an offensive guy, so how much of the offense was really his doing is debatable. Lazor does have a good history with quarterbacks, both as a QB coach and OC, so hooray for that. After the hire was announced, Twitter started with the obligatory Andy Dalton to Chicago talk. Another one of Lazor’s former QBs, Ryan Tannehill, is a free agent this off-season, but logic says Tennessee is going to do whatever they have to do to keep him around.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

 

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