Mike Singletary the Latest Bears Defensive Coordinator Candidate
Whether it's a tip of the cap to the old guard, Matt Nagy is on a nostalgia trip, or whatever, the Chicago Bears have interviewed Mike Singletary for the vacant defensive coordinator position.
The Athletic first reported this interview, which at one time might have seemed like a natural fit. Singletary was the great field general and on-field leader of Buddy Ryan's 46 defense back in 1985, a former linebackers coach for Ray Lewis in Baltimore, and a head coach with the San Francisco 49ers.
Yet, Singletary hasn't been in the league or even coaching at a level of football considered for NFL jobs since 2016 when he had a one-year stint with the Los Angeles Rams as a special defensive assistant. Before that, he was out of the league two years and after his head coaching job in San Francisco had been the Vikings linebackers coach for three years from 2011-13.
As head coach with the 49ers, Singletary had a record of 18-22 over parts of three seasons from 2008-2010.
Singletary last coached as a defensive coordinator in The Spring League, a league for prospects hoping to be signed after the draft, last year. He was head coach for the Memphis Express in the AAF in 2019 before the league folded. And for two years he took a head coaching job at Trinity Christian Academy, a high school in Texas.
There's no doubt about Singletary's place in Bears history, and he always seemed a natural to return there in the 1990s and a while after that. He attended the team's 100-year anniversary celebration in June of 2019 along with many of the 1985 team members, so he's stayed in touch with the team over the years.
Singletary's playing career started in 1981 as a second-round pick from Baylor and ran through the end of the Mike Ditka era in 1992. Then he was out of football all together for a decade before going to the Ravens and 49ers as linebackers coach.
In a coaching career that started in 2003, his only experience as a defensive coordinator was the 2020 stint in The Spring League, though Ryan often insisted he was like a coordinator on the field.
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