Chuck Pagano Has "Died and Gone to Heaven" By Joining the Bears

Replacing Vic Fangio was going to be a nightmare for the Chicago Bears. Previous attempts to replace great defensive coordinators had met with mixed results. Vince Tobin inherited the all-time great 1985 unit and kept it going for a number of years, though they were never quite the same. Bob Babich replaced Ron Rivera in 2007 and things went downhill fast. The Bears had to get their decision right. They went for Chuck Pagano.

It was certainly a bold move. Pagano had only been a defensive coordinator for one season in his NFL career in 2011. Granted, that unit finished 3rd in the NFL but it was also loaded with future Hall of Famers including Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and perhaps Terrell Suggs. It made his job easy. When he got to Indianapolis as their new head coach, things got more difficult.

Constant underachievement by the defense along with poor drafting eventually lead to his firing by the Colts. Pagano could've easily grown frustrated over how things ended. He could've made excuses. Instead, when talking with Peter King of NBC Sports, he sees what happened as a blessing in disguise.

If it hadn't, he wouldn't be holding what he considered to be one of the best jobs in the game of football.

Chuck Pagano views the Bears job as a dream come true

Pagano had already hinted at the fact that he was glad his time as a head coach was over. While he attacked the job with restless energy and had a lot of success in Indy, the pressures that came with it were taxing. Normally a former head coach is merely looking for the next opportunity to get that job again. It doesn't seem that is the case with Pagano.

He likes being an assistant coach where he's allowed to narrow his focus to what he does best. That would explain why he expressed such gratitude for landing the Bears job.

“I’m not bitter,” Pagano said from Illinois the other day. “I’m better. [Colts owner] Jim Irsay and I have a relationship for life. I love Jim Irsay. I love the organization. At some point coaches have to say goodbye to teams, and teams have to say goodbye to coaches. If you win, you keep your job, and if not, they move in a different direction. I never took it personal. And now I get to coach with one of the great franchises in sports, the Chicago Bears. I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

Word out of Halas Hall is Pagano is already making an impression with the players. They gravitate to his ceaseless positivism and energy. Neither should be a surprise. It's been a trademark of his entire coaching career. One thing that stands out though is how much he wanted the job. It isn't just another stepping stone to bigger opportunities for him.

Pagano truly loves where he is. That sort of commitment rarely leads to bad things in the future. The Bears have had a hard time replacing good coordinators in the past because most have gone on to become head coaches. If things progress as hoped, Pagano could be sitting in that chair for a long time.