The saying in any business is it's not what you know but who you know. The Chicago Bears understand free agency well enough. People think it comes down to how much money a team can offer, but it's never that easy. Several factors can often play into it such as location, team history and any personal connections between player and coaching staff.
John Fox and Ryan Pace have already exploited that last part on a number of occasions the past two years. Fox was able to bring in linebacker Danny Trevathan last year. Pace sold defensive end Akiem Hicks on coming to Chicago. The defense appears the better for those moves. So are there any particular connections they can exploit in 2016?
A few interesting defensive names who worked under Vic Fangio will be out there. Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains has one or two guys he might like to call. However, one of their recent coaching additions may have opened a door for them to upgrade one of the thinnest positions on their roster.
ROOTS
Zach Azzanni freely admitted he was blown away when the Bears called him about their wide receivers job a couple weeks ago. Up to this point he's spent his entire football career as a coach in the college ranks. He'd fully expected to resume work in 2017 at Tennessee. Instead Chicago caught wind of his work and wanted to bring in a fresh face with new ideas. As it turns out he's also somebody with a pretty decent track record too. Antonio Brown was one of his great success stories out of Central Michigan. He also helped Jared Abbrederis become a star at Wisconsin. One of his more underrated jobs was the one he pulled with a young tight end named Jack Doyle during his brief stint at Western Kentucky as Scout.com pointed out."Azzanni spent 2011 as the offensive coordinator/ wide receivers coach at Western Kentucky. In his lone season at WKU, the school featured the nation’s 2nd leading rusher in Bobby Rainey (141.3 ypg) and TE Jack Doyle finished 5th in the nation in receiving yards among tight ends (614)."
