There’s nothing like news of a well-earned promotion to get the weekend started on the right foot.
#Bears Coaching Update:
Deshea Townsend will now carry the title of Secondary Coach while Sean Desai (Safeties) and Bill Shuey (Defensive Pass Analyst/Assistant Linebackers) have been promoted from their defensive quality control roles. pic.twitter.com/zh390IfU9u— Chicago Bears (@BearsPR) February 8, 2019
The Chicago Bears announced clarifications regarding some coaching roles for assistants working under new Defensive Coordinator Chuck Pagano. Sean Desai and Bill Shuey have been promoted from roles as quality control assistants into new gigs with fancy titles.
Desai has the title of Safeties Coach, filling in what used to be referred to as the Assistant Defensive Backs Coach position. He takes over for Roy Anderson, who was the Assistant DBs Coach under Vic Fangio last season. Prior to taking over in this capacity, Desai worked as a Defensive Quality Control coach under Marc Trestman (2013-14), John Fox (2015-17), and Matt Nagy (2018). Clearly, Desai is doing something right to hang around through three different coaching regimes. He also has experience at the college level for Boston College (Running Backs/Special Teams), Miami (Assistant Director of Football Operations), and Temple (Defense/Special Teams). And if that wasn’t enough, he has experience as an adjunct professor at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
While it would have been fun to have Ed Reed coaching Eddie Jackson, I suppose Desai was long overdue for a promotion into a role as a position coach.
Shuey’s jump from a quality control coach into an assistant position coach wasn’t as long as Desai’s, but it’s still a move into a new gig. After one year as a Defensive Quality Control coach on Nagy’s staff, Shuey has been promoted to Defensive Pass Analyst/Assistant Linebackers Coach. Shuey has coaching experience as a defensive coordinator at Widener University (2014-17) and with linebackers at West Chester University (2012-13). He even has time as an assistant with the Eagles, coaching linebackers from 2008-11 and serving in various other roles between 2003 and 2007.
And to bring it all together, Deshea Townsend (who was recently named the Defensive Backs Coach) now has the title of Secondary Coach. That falls in line more with how Pagano ran things in Baltimore, as far as coaching duties and titles are concerned.
Save for the replacements among the quality control positions, Pagano’s staff appears to be set on the defensive side of the ball. And yet, there is so much time between now and when games of consequence will take place. I guess the waiting really is the hardest part.