Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor will have the play sheet and the ear of quarterback Nick Foles when the Chicago Bears take on the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night.
Lazor is replacing head coach Matt Nagy as the Bears’ primary play-caller, a decision Nagy labored over before making the move official on Friday.
“This will give me an opportunity to step back and see things from a different position,” Nagy said Friday.
Nagy called plays for part of one season with the Kansas City Chiefs before he was hired by the Bears. He has called offensive plays during his two-plus seasons with the team.
“It’s not easy. It’s one of my favorite parts of coaching. I love it. I love it,” Nagy said, adding the decision was specific to Monday’s game and further changes could be made during the bye the following week. “We need to do what’s best for us, not what’s best for Matt Nagy.”
The Bears are 5-4 and losers of three straight games after a surprising 5-1 start. They’re last in the NFC North with 178 points and have been outscored by 12 points this season.
Still, Chicago sits only one game behind the 6-2 Packers in the win column and resides in second place in the division.
The Bears are 29th in yards per game and 29th in points per game at 19.8.
Lazor, 48, previously served as offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins.
Lazor said he feels frustrated by the lack of production of the offense and didn’t want to speculate how “close” the Bears might be to a breakout game.
“Not very satisfying when you put so much work into it and it doesn’t produce like you’d like it to,” Lazor said.
