Bear Digest

Former Bears coordinator returns to the NFL from retirement

One of the more popular coaches in the league is back as Chuck Pagano ended his retirement after four seasons away and will help John Harbaugh and the Ravens.
Gene Chamberlain|
Former Colts coach and Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano has returned from retirement to be a Ravens assistant.
Former Colts coach and Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano has returned from retirement to be a Ravens assistant. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Chuck Pagano is back, even with Aaron Rodgers still in the league.

The former Bears defensive coordinator stepped away from the game following the 2020 season in Chicago and has spent the last four seasons like any other retired person while also making occasional appearances on the Pat McAfee Show.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Tuesday Pagano is back in coaching as a senior secondary coach with the Baltimore Ravens.

John Harbaugh issued  statement about the hiring.

"Chuck brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and coaching talent to our team," Harbaugh wrote. "He as deep ties to the program and is excited to get to work."

Pagano was with the Ravens from 2008-11 and had the tough assignment of following Vic Fangio's act in Chicago but did a solid job, especially the first year in 2019. The   defense finished fourth in points allowed and eighth in yards allowed during an 8-8 season. They were 14th in scoring and 11th in yards allowed during his last season and the Bears made the playoffs as an 8-8 wild card.

Then Pagano bowed out and Sean Desai was Bears defensive coordinator in the final year of the Matt Nagy regime. Desai's defense was sixth in yards but 24th in points allowed. The Bears defense hasn't been as good both in yards and points allowed during the same season since Pagano left.

Pagano was head coach of the Colts from 2012-2017 and made the playoffs his first three years. He became well known for fighting through acute promyelocytic leukemia in 2012 when Andrew Luck was a rookie and the Colts made the playoffs.

"And he's like, just toys with you," Pagano complained before their final encounter, during the pandemic. "He stands back there and he spends all day behind the center and he's moving guys around to get man/zone (reads). He knows what the hell you're going to be in. He finds the matchup he wants and then he exploits it."

He sounded like someone describing the Terminator with his comical rant prior to a road game with the Packers.

"I mean, this guy," he said of Rodgers. "Move the game. COVID! I don't even want to go up there."

Football is richer for having Pagano back, but he needs to hope Aaron Glenn decides he wants a different quarterback next season because the Jets are scheduled to play the Ravens and Rodgers is still their QB at this writing.

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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.