Bears Rumors: Bill Lazor Expected to Replace Mark Helfrich as OC

The Chicago Bears are reportedly planning to hire Bill Lazor as the team's new offensive coordinator, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. 

Lazor spent two seasons as the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator from 2017-18 and held the same role with the Miami Dolphins in 2014-15.

He will replace Mark Helfrich, who was fired after a disappointing 2019 season along with three other offensive assistants.

Helfrich was in his second year with the Bears, but the squad took a major step back this season 29th in the NFL in both yards and points scored. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky had high expectations but struggled to an 83.0 quarterback rating and 40.6 Total QBR, a major drop from his 95.4 rating and 70.8 QBR in 2018.

Head coach Matt Nagy kept his job despite the team's 8-8 season, but he will hope for better offensive production after the change at coordinator.

Lazor has experience in the role, but has been inconsistent at his different stops.

The Bengals finished 26th and 17th in points scored during his two seasons, which looks better after the squad dropped to 30th in 2019 during an embarrassing 2019 season.

He also helped Miami jumped from 26th in scoring to 11th in his first year in charge in 2014, although the team dropped back down to 27th in his second season.

Despite the inconsistency, Lazor has a long resume of working with quarterbacks and has worked for six different NFL organizations during his career. He also has worked under a variety of experienced coaches like Mike Holmgren, Dan Reeves and Joe Gibbs.

Nagy and the Bears will hope this could be the key in unlocking Trubisky's potential and getting the most out of an offense that failed to live up to expectations last year.