The Chicago Bears lost Chuck Pagano this offseason as he decided to retire. Many, including myself, have speculated he was going to be fired anyway. As the news broke about Pagano, the Chicago Bears started looking at internal candidates along with a few names from outside of the organization to replace Pagano as defensive coordinator.
While the search still continues, the Chicago Bears have seen positional coaches jump ship and leave for greener pastures. No one should be surprised about this though. Recently, I wrote about how the Chicago Bears should promote Jay Rodgers to defensive coordinator and lock him in. Unfortunately, Rodgers has now headed to coach the defensive line of the Chargers.
Matt Nagy is expected to have more than a D-coordinator to hire. League sources say defensive line coach Jay Rodgers is bound for the #Chargers.https://t.co/URtl9plnqU
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) January 21, 2021
Are Chicago Bears coaches abandoning the team due to fear of job security?
This is a unilateral move for Rodgers and not a promotion. It is possible he is getting a significant bump in salary, but honestly, I think he sees the writing on the wall. With Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy on the hot seat (probably the hottest seat in the NFL in 2021), coaches are likely not feeling confident about job security.
Rodgers was not the only one to bail. Matt Nagy will now need to find a new running backs coach as Charles London left the team to become the quarterbacks coach of the Falcons. This is an interesting development as London has never been a quarterbacks coach before and instead has spent the majority of his career working with running backs.
London is not the only one to leave for the Falcons. Dave Ragone left to be the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. At least this was a promotion. Ragone spent most of his time with the Chicago Bears as a quarterbacks coach but was most recently the passing game coordinator. Needless to say, I am not saddened by his departure, but it just again shows that another coach is leaving the Bears.
The #Falcons staff is taking shape. Under coach Arthur Smith, Atlanta is expected to hire veteran defensive coordinator Dean Pees out of retirement, sources say, and they are working toward hiring Dave Ragone of the #Bears as their new offensive coordinator.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 21, 2021
Final Thoughts:
This team is in for a world of hurt. Too many of the defensive coordinators Matt Nagy has interviewed recently would not see interviews from other teams. There are a couple of guys I’d be okay with them hiring, but to make sure the team does not lose another strong positional coach, it might be prudent for them to switch gears and promote Sean Desai.