4 NFL Teams That Should Run the Ball More in 2015

Chicago Bears

In 2014, Detroit, Philadelphia, Oakland, Atlanta, New Orleans and Indianapolis called more passing plays than Chicago. However, the Bears ranked second in pass-to-run ratio (only behind the Raiders) thanks to poor offensive and defensive efficiency which led to fewer plays called overall on offense.

The Bears should be better defensively than they were last year, mostly because the only place to go is up -- they finished with the fifth worst defense in the NFL according to our schedule-adjusted Net Expected Points (NEP) metric, including a 27th-ranked secondary.

But a new regime is in town, too, and it's one that's more conservative than the group it replaced. With John Fox and Adam Gase, expect a more balanced attack. Gase's offense in Denver ranked 19th a season ago in pass-to-run ratio, and it was 13th in 2013. While game script favored them plenty, let's not forget Peyton Manning was also under center, so throwing the ball wasn't exactly a bad idea.

Fox has been a "win with defense and the run" coach for years as well. Four of his nine Carolina Panthers teams finished with a sub-1.00 pass-to-run rate, and before Peyton Manning entered the picture, his highest pass-to-run rate in a given season as head coach was 1.25. That would have ranked ninth lowest in the NFL last year.

Expect the Bears to try and take pressure off of quarterback Jay Cutler this season, and if the defense improves even a little, that should create a big swing in play-calling.