Getty Images BOURBONNAIS, Ill. — “You gotta say hi to Mark,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said Sunday morning just before 7, as we finished our talk in his Olivet Nazarene University RA apartment-turned-training-camp-office-and-bedroom. (Sparse, but with a big desk, comfy barcalounger, flat-screen, XOS video system and all the Gatorade you could want—a swell camp setup.) Mark. Nagy’s across-the-hall neighbor and offensive alter-ego, Mark Helfrich, the former Oregon head coach and one of the most interesting hires of this NFL season. Helfrich replaced Chip Kelly when Kelly bolted for the Eagles, lasted four years, did college games on TV last year, and leapt at the chance to work with a total stranger when he called late last season. Nagy knocked on Helfrich’s door. We waited. I couldn’t help but think how downright weird this whole thing is. Weird in a football-test-tube/experimental way, with the potential of the next wave of the trendy Run Pass Option system. And also weird in how much Nagy—who might get only one chance at this dream job—trusts a man he never worked with before and just met in January. In football, coaches invariably hire their friends, or men they worked with for years. Nagy, for the… Read full this story
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Matt, Mark and Mitch: Odd Offensive Triumvirate Tries to Bring Back Bears have 285 words, post on profootballtalk.nbcsports.com at July 23, 2018. This is cached page on Goose Art. If you want remove this page, please contact us.