The Chicago Bears coaching staff has seen some remarkable overhauling in the past week. Rather unusual for a team that went 8-8 but that’s the extent of the disappointment 2019 was. To the surprise of nobody, almost every change was centered around the offense with three coaches getting fired. Juan Castillo was the first replacement to arrive, taking over the offensive line. Then Clancy Barone arrived to assume control of the tight ends. Last but not least, Bill Lazor was made offensive coordinator and John DeFilippo the quarterbacks coach. Dave Ragone was promoted to passing game coordinator.
The Bears weren’t done there though. A number of other assistants received promotions as well. These are interesting for their own reasons. Chris Jackson becomes the assistant wide receivers coach. This after being a defensive assistant in 2018. This is a wise move by the Bears considering Jackson’s expertise was at wide receiver, having played the position in both the NFL and Arena League.
Another was Shane Toub, son to former Bears special teams mastermind Dave Toub. He was an offensive assistant for two years but has now become a defensive quality control coach. An interesting shift given his background is exclusively on offense. Perhaps a sign the Bears trust him to make that transition.
Last but not least is Brian Ginn. After two years as an offensive quality control coach, he becomes the Bears’ new assistant special teams coordinator. Not a surprise given the man has coached several different positions in his career including quarterbacks, wide receivers, and running backs.
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Chicago Bears coaching staff still rewarding their own
Despite bringing in several new faces, it’s clear Nagy wants to maintain the same sort of staff atmosphere he enjoyed under Andy Reid. Young coaches who do their jobs well get promoted for it. That was the case with Ragone, whom the team is quite high on. These gentlemen are the same. Not only do they get nice little bumps in pay. Their dreams of rising high in the NFL takes another step further. One can imagine they’ll start to get noticed more if the Bears rebound in 2020.
It’s clear enough based on these moves the Bears are shifting guys into areas felt to be more towards their strengths. Never a bad plan. It will be interesting to see how things go. No doubt people will be motivated since jobs might be on the line.
