Re: Official: Mark Helfrich named Bears OC
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:05 am
Cohen and Hill are different players. Hill was primarily a sprinter so they moved him to basically a pure wide receiver last season. Cohen is a natural running back and taking handoffs so it makes the most sense to still use Cohen as a change of pace tailback to Howard, which will make his usage different from Hill.
In addition to spelling Howard at tailback I think the base offense is going to be Howard, 2 WR hopefully with deep speed to keep the field spread, and them moving Shaheen and Cohen all over the formation. You take advantage of Shaheen having the size to play on the line of scrimmage, but also being able to split out. The key player is Cohen. Cohen is not going to become an outside receiver like Hill, but ideally he does need to master the craft of being a traditional slot receiver. You want to be able to run a traditional 11 personnel offense with Cohen as a slot receiver and then be able to motion to all of the RPO stuff, or vice versa. The Bears started Cohen on this journey last season. He was the only running back to take part in WR drills in training camp.
Hopefully they can also develop Taquan Mizzell as a competent 3rd down back. Someone who is a bigger than Cohen to pick up blitzes, but can also potentially be more of a threat when split out as a receiver than someone like Cunningham. Potentially they could do some things in combination with Cohen on the field as well if they can get into manageable 3rd down distances. Split both out, put both in the backfield, or motion one out then the other in to get one of them isolated against a LB.
In addition to spelling Howard at tailback I think the base offense is going to be Howard, 2 WR hopefully with deep speed to keep the field spread, and them moving Shaheen and Cohen all over the formation. You take advantage of Shaheen having the size to play on the line of scrimmage, but also being able to split out. The key player is Cohen. Cohen is not going to become an outside receiver like Hill, but ideally he does need to master the craft of being a traditional slot receiver. You want to be able to run a traditional 11 personnel offense with Cohen as a slot receiver and then be able to motion to all of the RPO stuff, or vice versa. The Bears started Cohen on this journey last season. He was the only running back to take part in WR drills in training camp.
Hopefully they can also develop Taquan Mizzell as a competent 3rd down back. Someone who is a bigger than Cohen to pick up blitzes, but can also potentially be more of a threat when split out as a receiver than someone like Cunningham. Potentially they could do some things in combination with Cohen on the field as well if they can get into manageable 3rd down distances. Split both out, put both in the backfield, or motion one out then the other in to get one of them isolated against a LB.
