NEWSLETTER
Matt Nagy has put together quite the staff in the first few days of his tenure with the Chicago Bears.
He has lined up an innovative offensive coordinator and a special teams coach who worked under the ever-popular Dave Toub. The next dominoes to fall will be position coaches, including a new position coach for Mitch Trubisky.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle tweets the Bears have an interest in hiring Texans offensive assistant Pat O’Hara as their next quarterbacks coach. For what it’s worth, the Bears will reportedly hire former Texans Running Backs Coach Charles London to the same position. So what’s another Houston assistant for Nagy’s staff?
O’Hara’s NFL coaching experience began in 2015 as an offensive assistant under Texans Head Coach Bill O’Brien, a noted quarterback guru. After two years in that role, O’Hara added responsibilities assisting Houston’s Quarterbacks Coach Sean Ryan. Those responsibilities in 2017 included helping coach and develop rookie first-round pick Deshaun Watson. Prior to his time in the NFL, O’Hara has coached quarterbacks as a position coach and offensive coordinator as the high school level. He also served as a head coach and offensive coordinator in the Arena League. The 49-year-old assistant has been around for a while, even if all of his coaching experience hasn’t come in the NFL.
O’Hara was a 10th-round pick (yep, the NFL Draft was that deep once upon a time) by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1991. He spent time on the practice squad before being activated and placed into a role as the team’s third-string quarterback behind Vinny Testaverede and Chris Chandler. O’Hara would later have short stints with the San Dego Chargers (1992-93) and Washington Redskins (1994). His playing career later included stops in the Arena Football League, where he won three ArenaBowl championships.
The Bears already have QBs Coach Dave Ragone under contract, but Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets Ragone (who has prior experience as the Tennessee Titans Wide Receivers Coach) could stay on board as an assistant even if O’Hara is hired.
