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Why Press Taylor’s 'Failed' Past Makes Him the Perfect Bears Offensive Coordinator

Press Taylor’s play-calling nearly ended his career in Jacksonville. Now, Ben Johnson is betting Taylor's 20-terabyte film library is the Bears' secret weapon.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor explains his new role, moving up from passing game coordinator.
Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor explains his new role, moving up from passing game coordinator. | Chicago Bear On SI Photo: Chicago Bears video

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Chicago Bears

When the Bears lost highly organized offensive coordinator Declan Doyle to be OC and play caller in Baltimore, the announcement of Press Taylor as a replacement hardly met with resounding applause.

That's because the baggage Taylor brought to Chicago included both failure and success from past efforts. It's part of what most coaches go through when they've been in the league as long as Taylor. At 38, the younger brother of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has been coaching in the league for 13 years with varying degrees of success. He's depicted as sort of an older version of Doyle, and with Philadelphia at the outset of his career had been thought of in much the same way the Bears thought of Doyle.

Taylor's relationship with Caleb Williams will be greater now than as passing game coordinator, but how that changes the dynamic remains to be seen

The reason coach Ben Johnson believes he has the right person to replace Doyle is the role the offensive coordinator plays in the Bears' structure is in tune with where Taylor enjoyed the most past success. It's being organized and setting things up, which is essentially what Doyle was so effective at last year after Johnson hired him away from Denver in a supporting role.

“I think a lot of that started just being a QC (assistant) for a while," Press Taylor said during last week's rookie minicamp. "I was fortunate enough to be in one place for a long time.

"I think that's a big part of it that helps. I was in Philly for eight years to start my career and so you see a lot of the same things as quality control breaking down everybody every single week. So you see a lot of plays. You’re kind of, 'Hey, I keep seeing this show up.' "

As a result, Taylor started retaining an extensive film library.

"Well, I wanted to just save all that.," Taylor said. "That's where it all started."

Taylor keeps adding to his play library and adds the library to his team's collection.

“It's pretty big," he said. "I know I have two different 10-terabyte drives that I bring with me when I move and I give them to the video department and I don't think they love seeing me come down the hall.

"I make sure they load those up for me and then I continue to add as the year goes and it builds on pretty good."

No play-calling issues here

Taylor's perceived downfall in Jacksonville came with play calling for former coach Doug Pederson in his first pro experience handling this. Now, it's a different weekly in-season contribution than when he was passing game coordinator.

“I think just directing some of the meetings," Taylor said. "Ben's not able to be in all the offensive staff meetings, things like that. So I try to just steer the ship in terms of where we're going, fill the gap when he's not in the room, relay his message to the staff really more than anything."

In the offseason work, it's something similar in terms of facilitating organization. Like with play calling, it all originates with Johnson.

"I spend a lot of time with him, he and I talking to make sure we're on the same page and then I carry his message through the offensive staff,” Taylor said.

None of it is calling plays, which was where there were troubles in his past. Jacksonville reportedly had Taylor calling some plays in 2022 and then turned it over to him in 2023.   Taylor actually had gained a little experience with it as a QB coach in Philadelphia.

Jacksonville was 10th on offense in 2022 with Taylor splitting play calling, then 13th in 2023 when it was his duty. During an injury-plagued 2024, the bottom fell out when he was play caller. The offense finished 25th and the defense 31st, as the staff got fired. He was relieved of play callling before the season ended.

With Johnson calling all plays, none of this should be a Bears concern.

The staff moves forward with Taylor in his role and with Eric Studesville in the running backs coach role held last year by Eric Bieniemy. What's different than last year is everyone except rookies and new veterans are familiar with what is being taught.

"This time last year we were just teaching them how we wanted you to hold the ball and where we wanted you to align," Taylor ssaid. They didn't necessarily know we were going through play-call drills with the quarterback."

It's like a head start compared to last year's offseason program, not unlike the one they hope they've achieved by promoting from within to fill a coordinator/organizer role rather than going outside Halas Hall for someone unfamiliar with Johnson, the players, offense, and staff.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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