Bear Digest

How the Bears Fared in Coordinator Search

Analysis: The Bears seized upon an advantage with their head coach already in place and acted quickly to find highly qualified coordinators suiting their approach.
Gene Chamberlain|
How the Bears Fared in Coordinator Search
How the Bears Fared in Coordinator Search

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Chicago Bears

It's easy to draw conclusions about the Bears' process for filling coaching staff openings, even if they still need receivers and running backs coaches.

NFL Network reported the receiver coaching candidates currently as former Chargers receivers coach Chris Beatty and former NFL receivers Ike Hilliard and Rob Moore, two veteran receivers coaches. The Bears had been considering Seahawks receivers coach Sanjay Lal but he reportedly withdrew his name from consideration. He had been Seattle receivers coach under new Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

The hiring of Waldron and defensive coordinator Eric Washington came after the Bears immediately seized upon the opportunity provided by their situation. They had their head coach in place already while these other eight teams were in flux, and quickly went after the candidates without delays to take advantage of this edge.

With one quarter of the NFL's teams changing head coaches, the pool of assistants available expanded immediately but potential candidates with experience began shrinking quickly after head coaching spots began to fill.

What could potentially be a one-year situation can turn off many qualified candidates, who seek more security. So striking early while also being thorough in their search was imperative. They apear to have succeeded at this and found candidates entirely experienced at how they want to operate on offense and defense. They didn't have to sort through scraps for someone who might help their staff the way they've done under other head coaches at times in the past.

Success this season already has been put down as a mandate by both GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren, although Poles seemed a little less specific.

"That's always going to be our expectations," Poles said. "But this team is ready to take the next step, and we always have high expectations of what we should be."

Warren was a little more direct about how much time the staff has to win.

"I'm not saying a lot of time, but I strongly believe that this third year, going into this third year is going to be a critical time for us to take a major jump," he said.

So they'll go forth with less adjustment time needed because the hires are so familiar with the assignments.

Perhaps only Kellen Moore and Kliff Kingsbury were more qualified candidates for offensive coordinator when the Bears hired Waldron, and Bears were reportedly blocked in attempts to talk to the the Chargers offensive coordinator as that team was still in the process of considering Moore for head coach before the hiring of Jim Harbaugh.

Kingsbury would have brought an entirely different type of offense that might have forced the Bears into making more personnel changes. And Waldron actually had desired experience within the L.A. Rams/Sean McVay system that both Kingsbury and Moore lacked, anyway. The use of extensive presnap motion by McVay has been viewed as something many defenses struggle with and the Bears' defenses has been one of those.

Washington's hiring proved a fit, but fellow candidate Chris Harris also had experience with the Tampa-2 style as a coach and with his career as a Bears player under Lovie Smtih. However, he lacked defensive coordinator experience. Washington has at this.

The caveat here is Washington needs to be defensive coordinator for weekly preparation and not for calling defenses on a down-by-down basis.

Washington's past as defensive play caller wasn't entirely successful, as Ron Rivera took back defensive play-calling duties from him in December of his first season as Panthers defensive coordinator. 

However, this doesn't necessarily mean Washington would be bad at it now. And he does bring to the Bears a quality they can definitely use and that's a history of being associated with a strong pass rush. The Panthers' 280 sacks from 2011-17 led the NFL for that period and 219 of these sacks came from the linemen. With Washington on their staff, the Bills haven't been out of the top half of the league in sacks and last season were fourth in the NFL.

Getting more pass rush pressure is their biggest weakness on defense. After Montez Sweat's arrival they had 20 sacks for nine games but still ended up next to last overall with 30 sacks.

The Washington situation works as long as Eberflus is calling the defensive signals because their head coach has proven how good he is at it. If you're going into a year when winning is critical, you want to go with what you're certain works.

The Bears defense improved drastically last season with Eberflus in this dual role and only turning the duties over to someone with extensive and successful play-calling experience would have been acceptable if they planned to go back to a CEO-style of coach like Eberflus had been in Year 1.

There's no direct indication yet Eberflus will continue calling plays, but it's safe to assume. The only real question is on offense, where Waldron and new quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph haven't been involved directly in taking a quarterback from rookie status and developing him.

It could be Eberflus assumes they can do this because they're good teachers and this was one of the prerequisites he put forth in advance for any hire he made.

Or, it could be the staff doesn't need this experience because they're not planning to bring in a rookie quarterback at all.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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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