Count running back Jordan Howard among those happy about the Bears’ change in direction at head coach.
Howard said he was “pretty excited” when he heard that Matt Nagy was going to be the team’s head coach because the team didn’t have much success on offense in John Fox’s final season as head coach. Howard also sounds pretty excited about playing in a system that Nagy said will be fun for the players in 2018.
“I felt great about that because last year we were pretty much basic. Everybody knew what we were going do, they knew what was coming like pretty much every play so it was pretty easy for them to stop us,” Howard said on NFL Network. “Now, I feel like we’re going to be a lot more creative and have defenses off balance.”
Nagy brought former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich in as offensive coordinator and the tandem promises to be anything but basic when they put together the playbook for the 2018 season. How well the Bears can execute it will depend on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s growth and improvement at the receiver spots, but Howard and 2017 fourth-round pick Tarik Cohen give them a couple of building blocks.