The Chicago Bears are having a busy day. Especially head coach Matt Nagy. Barely minutes after insiders revealed safeties coach Sean Desai would be promoted to defensive coordinator, Adam Jahns of the Athletic dropped a little bomb of his own. It seems the Bears are in hot pursuit of assistant coach Duce Staley to join their offensive staff.
If this ends up coming true, it would be a huge addition. Staley is one of the most respected young coaches in the NFL. He’s been with the Philadelphia Eagles since 2011. So Nagy worked with him for two seasons while there before Andy Reid was fired. That is one reason the Bears head coach tried to lure the 45-year old to Chicago back last year.
Staley declined, choose to stay in Philly with a pay raise.
Things have obviously changed since then. Head coach Doug Pederson was fired, ushering in the arrival of 39-year old replacement Nick Sirianni from Indianapolis. With the entire staff in flux, it appears Nagy is seizing an opportunity to pursue Staley once again. The Bears have a vacancy at running backs coach after the departure of Charles London to Atlanta.
“Sources also said that Duce Staley, who was the Eagles’ assistant head coach/running backs coach, is in talks to join Nagy’s staff.”
This is the same job Staley has held since 2013. Not surprising since he’s a former thousand-yard rusher himself in the NFL. During his time at the job, he has gotten highly productive campaigns out of the Eagles ground game. His first season they had #1 rushing attack in the NFL with LeSean McCoy racking up 1,607 yards on the ground. In 2017, the Eagles rode the #3 rushing attack all the way to the Super Bowl.
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This man is good at his job.
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Matt Nagy is smart to pursue Staley
The facts remain unchanged. Until the Bears find themselves a quarterback, they have to make sure their ground game is at least functional. David Montgomery performed really well down the stretch this season, eclipsing 1,000 yards for the first time in his career. Tarik Cohen should return health next year from his torn ACL. If the team can improve their blocking up front, that has a chance to be a productive tandem.
Having somebody like Staley coaching them up would be the icing on the cake. There is lots of buzz about him around the NFL. It’s believed he will be a head coach before too long. Adding somebody like that to a staff rarely leads to bad results. Perhaps the Bears may even have the potential successor to Matt Nagy in place if they manage to pull the hire off.
Then again, maybe the Bears have different plans for him.
It’s not like Staley is only capable of coaching running backs. He just happens to have experience at that position. If Nagy were smart he’d think about expanding the man’s responsibilities were they able to snag him. Here’s hoping the Bears pull it off. This would be a nice bit of positive news for what is a critical offseason.