Chicago Bears: Under-the-radar defensive coordinator candidates
By Ryan Heckman
Chicago Bears’ under-the-radar defensive coordinator candidates: Chris Harris
Look who we have here. For those fans who remember the mid-2000’s defense in Chicago, you might be familiar with Chris Harris. He played safety for the Bears in 2005 and 2006, and then had another stint with the Bears from 2010-2011.
The former hard-hitting safety is now the defensive backs coach for the Washington Football Team who enjoyed a much better season than their record showed. Of course, the team hardly made it into the playoffs at 7-9, but their defense was stout all year long.
Harris coached this year under his former defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who is now of course the head coach in Washington.
This past season, Washington allowed quarterbacks the second-fewest yards per attempt (6.4), the third-lowest completion percentage (62.4) and allowed the second-fewest passing touchdowns (21).
Those numbers are pretty impressive for a secondary which featured zero Pro Bowl players in 2020. Harris simply coached a tight-knit group of guys who played phenomenal football together.
Before coaching in Washington, Harris was an assistant secondary coach for the Chargers (2016-2019) and worked with studs like Casey Hayward, Desmond King and Derwin James. In Chicago, Harris would have similar talent in Kyle Fuller and Eddie Jackson, along with up-and-coming corner Jaylon Johnson.
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Getting these defensive backs to play much more aggressive should be a top priority for any defensive coordinator who comes in, and Harris would do exactly that.