Plan B for the Bears Coordinators

Bears announce who they turn to as backup plan for coordinators, but coach Matt Nagy hasn't said whether he'll call plays or his quarterbacks coach will.

Bears coach Matt Nagy late Saturday afternoon confirmed the coaching assignments for Monday's game in the wake of COVID-19 affecting all of his coordinators.

Passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo will be the acting offensive coordinator in place of Bill Lazor, although Nagy has not said whether the plays will be called by the acting offensive coordinator or himself. Nagy called plays earlier in the season before turning duties over to Lazor. The change came after quarterback Justin Fields' first start, when he was sacked nine times in a 26-6 loss.

"I'm sure we'll work together and just kind of see what we want to do there," Nagy said about DeFilippo and play calls. "I think that we've had a good plan all week long with how we've gone about it and what we've discussed. No matter who's calling it, we feel like the plan's gonna be good."

As expected, senior defensive assistant Mike Pettine will serve as defensive coordinator for Sean Desai. Pettine was defensive coordinator for Green Bay in the NFC championship game the last two years and was head coach in Cleveland when Bears safety Tashaun Gipson played for the Browns.

"I have no doubt in my mind that coach Pett will be able to come in here and call the game the way that he's seeing fit, obviously within the system that coach Desai has built," Gipson said. "But he's been doing this for a long time. He's respected, his defense is always一dating back to the time before I had the chance to play for him in Cleveland一you know he took our defense and made it respectable."

Assistant special teams coach Brian Ginn will serve as the special teams coordinator in place of Chris Tabor. Ginn has been a special teams assistant since the start of 2020 and before that was an offensive quality control coach for two seasons.

"I would expect it to go flawless," Tabor said when asked about Ginn taking over. Special teams isn't like offense or defense with several assistants under the coordinators.

"It's just the two of us," Tabor said. "We're the special teams coaches and we're a team. So the guys know him. They've got a lot of confidence in him. It would be just fine."

It's still possible all three coordinators could clear the COVID-19 protocol but would need to do it on Sunday.

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