Coaching Staff Nears Completion

With the hiring of Jim Dray as tight ends coach, the Bears are close to a full staff at a time when many other teams who had to hire head coaches have just begun to create coaching staffs.

To many Bears fans the wait for the hiring of a head coach for more than two weeks seemed an eternity.

As it turned out, they actually did it quickly and they have been reaping the rewards of an early hire.

On Sunday their coaching staff was nearly complete with the hiring of tight ends coach Jim Dray, a move reported by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.

Dray is a former NFL tight end for Arizona, Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco and Arizona, and will be coaching tight ends for the first time. He was a Browns quality control coach in 2019 and performed the same task for Arizona in 2020 and last season.

Great coach!

— Zach Ertz (@ZERTZ_86) February 6, 2022

Dray will be tasked with continuing the progress made by Cole Kmet in his second season. Kmet went from 28 receptions for 243 yards as a rookie to 60 catches and 612 yards in 2021. However, he failed to get in the end zone in 2021 after making two touchdown catches  as a rookie.

The Dray hiring left the Bears with an announcement to make yet on defensive line coach and running backs coach, as well as any extra position assistants they might want to add.

Meanwhile the Miami Dolphins hired 49ers assistant Mike McDaniel on Sunday as head coach, the Houston Texans reportedly have entered into talks to hire former Bears and Illinois coach Lovie Smith as head coach and the Vikings have yet to announce the official hiring of Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell as head coach.

All of those teams and several others who recently hired head coaches now must fill their staffs after the Bears have had the pick of the assistant coaches litter, so to speak.

In the Bears' case, it worked as positive in another way. If Smith is hired by Houston, he will be looking for assistants familiar with his cover-2 style and the Bears have already hired a defensive side with this experience, except for the defensive line coach. It's the same style of defense new Bears coach Matt Eberflus uses.

Veteran defensive line coach Rod Marinelli had been rumored as a possible Bears assistant because he coached in Dallas when Eberflus was there as a linebackers coach, but Marinelli also is a close friend and former defensive coach for Smith. Also, Marinelli is 72 years old now and retirement could be a possibility. There were reports in 2018 he was contemplating retirement.

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