At the top of the list of Bears’ needs is a head coach who can turn around a lifeless offense while keeping a top-10 defense in tact and performing at a high level.
Around The NFL editor Gregg Rosenthal pairs available coaches to jobs that are currently open, and puts together quite the argument for Philadelphia Eagles Quarterbacks Coach John DeFilippo for a particular Bears vacancy. HOWEVER, the fit isn’t quite what you might expect.
Rosenthal teams DeFilippo with Steve Wilks, giving the Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator the head coaching job and handing DeFilippo a promotion from Eagles QB coach to Bears offensive coordinator. Interesting, eh?
What makes this a possibility is that DeFilippo’s contract with the Eagles expires when the season ends. Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero list a handful of the assistant coaches who are expected to be highly coveted in free agency, which includes DeFilippo as one of the hottest non-coordinator candidates in the group. This list also includes Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who has already interviewed for the team’s open head coaching position.
All things being equal, Wilks and DeFilippo would give the Bears quite a 1-2 punch in the coaching department.
Wilks’ aggressive defensive style would be welcome in Chicago if he were to take over for a Fangio-led group that finished 10th in yards and ninth in scoring defense. On the other side of the ball, DeFilippo could work his magic and help Mitch Trubisky make good on his promise to take another step forward in his development in Year 2. It’s a match made in football heaven, right? Well, maybe, but it would probably be short lived.
The Bears followed a similar route in 2015 when the team hired John Fox, who then hired Adam Gase as offensive coordinator. Gase’s time in Chicago was short-lived, though, as he left to become the Miami Dolphins head coach after one season. If Trubisky made the kind of progress Wentz did in his second season, DeFilippo would surely return to the head coaching market as a top coaching candidate once again next offseason.