The Chicago Bears coaching staff might be nearing a shakeup in 2020. While head coach Matt Nagy is unlikely to be fired, the pressure will be on him to get a team that many feel is capable of pursuing a Super Bowl back to the level they were in 2018. There were far too many breakdowns and underachievement from this roster to be considered acceptable. Call them scapegoats if you wish, but failures of such caliber warrant changes being made.
What people don't know for sure is who on the staff might be out. There are theories but no hard proof as yet. Some guys are likely safe while others should be sweating right about now. One game remains up in Minnesota. This might be their last chance to make some kind of impression before the ultimate verdict is carried out. So who will it be? Which coaches could be looking for work by the middle of next month?
Which Chicago Bears coaches are in the most trouble?
Safe:
Entire defensive staff
When people look back on 2019 and the disappointment it was, they'll realize the defense was not the problem. Despite a myriad of injuries to key players like Akiem Hicks, Danny Trevathan, and Roquan Smith the unit managed to stay the course and finish in the top 10 in both points and yards allowed. Defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano and his staff did a tremendous job not letting things get out of hand even as the offense fell apart. Sure the takeaways could've been better, but that's always been a fickle stat.
Mike Furrey (Wide receivers coach)
While the offense, in general, was a problem, the wide receivers actually performed well. Allen Robinson had a Pro Bowl-worthy year and Anthony Miller overcame a slow start to put together an exciting second half of the season. Taylor Gabriel was on course to set a career-high in touchdowns before a concussion pretty much ended his season. Their numbers should've been higher than they are but frequent misfires by the quarterbacks prevented that.
Harry Hiestand (Offensive line coach)
People have loved bashing Hiestand for the underwhelming performance of the offensive line. If they looked closer though, they'd realize he's done a fine job in tough circumstances. The unit has lost two starters to injuries while he had to facilitate a position switch between Cody Whitehair and James Daniels midseason. Nevermind the overall lack of talent. Hiestand has credibility a mile long. He's not going anywhere.
Shaky:
Kevin Gilbride (Tight ends)
Some of this is hard to blame on Gilbride because he can't control the injuries that have struck his position with the two top guys landing on IR. Still, for the Bears tight ends to be in danger of finishing with less than 400 yards of offense as a group? It's hard to remove that kind of stain. Gilbride hasn't really elevated anybody to a significant stature. He's done interesting work with Jesper Horsted and J.P. Holtz. Is that enough to save him? Hard to say.
Chris Tabor (Special teams coordinator)
The special teams hasn't been terrible in 2019. Coverage units have been quite good for the most part. Punter Pat O'Donnell has had a good season too. That said, the team was plagued by significant bouts of bad penalties and ill-timed mistakes. Not to mention an ongoing problem at kicker that Tabor still hasn't fixed. It's really been a mixed bag with him over the past two seasons. It would not be a surprise if he got canned, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he stayed either.
Gone:
Mark Helfrich (Offensive coordinator)
Unless there's an unexpected change in the finale against Minnesota, Helfrich will have coordinated the 23rd and 29th ranked offenses in his two years with the Bears. That is bad. Really bad. The coach was always a bit of an odd hire. He'd never held an NFL job before and spent 2017 working as an analyst after being fired at Oregon.
Nagy wanted him for a think tank approach on crafting new and creative plays. They had success at this, but the problem is the job of a coordinator goes much deeper. The Bears' ugly lack of preparation was a persistent theme in 2019, and that falls on his shoulders.
Dave Ragone (Quarterbacks coach)
One of the few holdovers from the John Fox coaching staff was Ragone. This was because Mitch Trubisky put in a good word for him and felt he was helping him get better. However, after the 25-year old QB plummeted back to earth this season, it's starting to look like Ragone can't get the job done. Nagy needs more out of that position and if he can't change quarterbacks, then he'll have to work around the problem. That job is one way to do it.
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