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Travis Smith

Bears Finalize 2024 Coaching Staff

March 2nd, 2024 at 2:30pm CST by Ely Allen

This offseason, the Bears had to replace both coordinator positions, a situation that usually results in quite a bit of turnover on either side of the staff. Head coach Matt Eberflus allowed each coordinator to make final decisions on their staff, but many assistants (particularly on the defense) were retained in Chicago for the 2024 NFL season.

We’ll start on defense, where Eberflus likely influenced some of the decisions made by new defensive coordinator Eric Washington. The staff looks fairly similar to last year’s with defensive line coach Travis Smith, linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi, cornerbacks coach and defensive passing game coordinator Jon Hoke, safeties coach Andre Curtis, and defensive quality control coach Kevin Koch all being retained in their prior roles. David Overstreet also remains on staff, but his title changes from assistant defensive backs coach to nickelbacks coach. Kenny Norton III also earned a promotion, going from coaching assistant to defensive quality control coach.

The only two new additions on defense appear to be Bryan Bing, who replaces Justin Hinds as assistant defensive line coach, and new defensive analyst (advance/special projects) Matt Pees. After Hinds departed to take the defensive line coaching job in Seattle, according to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the Bears landed on Bing, who served as a defensive assistant with the Colts last year as a Tony Dungy Diversity Coaching Fellow. Pees is the son of long-time defensive coordinator Dean Pees and previously spent the last three years as a defensive assistant with the Falcons, working two of those years under his father.

On the offensive side of the ball, we already knew that new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron had hired Kerry Joseph as quarterbacks coach, Chad Morton as running backs coach, Chris Beatty as wide receivers coach, Thomas Brown as passing game coordinator, and Jason Houghtaling as assistant offensive line coach. Houghtaling will assist Chris Morgan, who was retained as offensive line coach and granted the additional title of offensive run game coordinator. Also retained were tight ends coach Jim Dray and offensive quality control coach Zach Cable.

There were three notable additions to the staff on offense. Both Ryan Griffin and Robbie Picazo will serve under the title offensive assistant (quarterbacks and wide receivers). Griffin, a former NFL quarterback, is taking his first coaching gig after a short stint in the Italian Football League last year. Picazo spent the past two years as an offensive assistant with the Seahawks and Texans, coaching at Rice and Stanford at the collegiate level for several years before that. The final offensive addition is Jennifer King, who will be the team’s offensive assistant (running backs). After becoming the first black woman to be named a full-time NFL coach as an assistant running backs coach for the past three year with the Commanders, King continues her NFL journey, this time in Chicago.

Lastly, the Bears enlisted the services of Chavis Cook to manage coaching administration.

There you have it. Eberflus has crafted a new staff with a mix of new and familiar faces. With the new staff locked in, the team can now turn its attention to free agency, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and the future of quarterback Justin Fields.

NFC Staff Notes: Panthers, Bears, Cowboys

February 8th, 2022 at 10:42pm CST by Sam Robinson

After two years back in college, Paul Pasqualoni is returning to the NFL. The Panthers hired the septuagenarian assistant as their defensive line coach Tuesday. Like Matt Rhule, Pasqualoni has spent most of his coaching career at the college level, being best known for his lengthy tenure as Syracuse’s head coach. Pasqualoni and Rhule were each head coaches, the former at UConn and the latter at Temple, in the American Athletic Conference’s debut season (2013). Pasqualoni, 72, resurfaced in the NFL in 2018, when he became Matt Patricia‘s defensive coordinator in Detroit. After Patricia fired him, Pasqualoni spent the past two years as a special assistant at Florida.

Here is the latest from the NFC coaching carousel:

  • The Bears have made a few more hires, staffing their front lines. They added Travis Smith to coach their defensive line. This will mark a notable change for Smith, who was with the Raiders for the past 10 years, coaching under Dennis Allen, Tony Sparano, Jack Del Rio, Jon Gruden and Rich Bisaccia. Chicago also added Jim Dray as its tight ends coach. A veteran tight end who retired not that long ago, Dray is moving up from the quality control level. This will be the 35-year-old assistant’s first position coaching gig, having been a QC coach in Cleveland over the past two years. Austin King is also set to become the Bears’ assistant O-line coach. King worked with Smith this past season, being the Raiders’ tight ends coach. He was Dayton’s OC from 2017-19.
  • Cowboys wide receivers coach Adam Henry is interviewing with the Giants. He will do so after turning down a new Cowboys contract, Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. Robert Prince is set to replace him, per ESPN’s Todd Archer and Field Yates (on Twitter). Prince and Cowboys OC Kellen Moore have an interesting history. Prince, 56, was a Boise State staffer during Moore’s final season (2011). He later joined the Lions’ staff during Moore’s QB tenure there. Prince spent seven seasons in Detroit as the team’s wideouts coach.
  • Curtis Modkins is likely to become the Vikings‘ next run-game coordinator and backfield coach, Mike Klis of 9News tweets. The Broncos’ running backs coach over the past four seasons, Modkins played a key role in Phillip Lindsay‘s rapid rise from UDFA to Pro Bowler and then aided Javonte Williams during his quality rookie season. Modkins, 51, is a two-time NFL OC, having served in that role with the Bills in the early 2010s and with the 49ers in 2016.
  • The Seahawks are in talks to add Karl Scott as their defensive passing-game coordinator, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times tweets. Alabama’s DBs coach from 2018-20, Scott made his NFL coaching debut this past season as Vikings secondary coach. The Seahawks adding Scott would not be as a Sean Desai backup plan, per Condotta. Both could join the revamped staff. Seattle is targeting the 2021 Chicago DC for an assistant role, in the event Minnesota does not hire him as its next DC.

Coaching Rumors: Blackburn, Bears, Browns

January 18th, 2018 at 6:37pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Panthers will be making a change atop their special teams staff. Incumbent special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey is out, Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer tweets, and the Sporting News’ Alex Marvez reports (on Twitter) Chase Blackburn will now run Carolina’s special teams units. A former linebacker who won two Super Bowls with the Giants and finished his career with the Panthers, Blackburn had been working as the Panthers’ assistant ST coach for the past two years.

Here’s the latest from the coaching ranks.

  • For the first time since 2010, someone other than Chris Tabor will oversee the Browns‘ ST units. Amos Jones will relocate to Cleveland to take over as the team’s special teams boss, Marvez tweets. Jones coached the Cardinals’ ST groups during Bruce Arians‘ five-year stay in Arizona. Tabor is now the Bears’ ST coordinator.
  • Rumored to be a candidate to stay in Chicago despite the Bears‘ coaching change, Dave Ragone will indeed stay on as the team’s quarterbacks coach, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports. This comes after the Bears interviewed both ex-Raiders OC Todd Downing and Texans assistant Pat O’Hara for the job. Ragone could be in line for an extension, Biggs notes, with one year remaining on his Bears contract.
  • Biggs also notes Vic Fangio believes most, if not all, of his defensive assistants will remain on staff. The Bears finished as the No. 14 DVOA defense in 2017 and retained Fangio despite his contract having expired.
  • The Titans‘ Steve Wilks HC interview took place Thursday. Both Wilks and Texans DC Mike Vrabel interviewed for this job today. Wilks remains a candidate for the Cards’ HC job.
  • Speaking of the Cardinals‘ HC position, Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic tweets James Bettcher likely won’t need a second interview to be hired. Should the Cards determine their current DC is the right man for the job, Somers notes his five years of experience working with the team should be a sufficient judge rather than a second meeting for the HC job.
  • The Raiders continued to add to their coaching staff this week, bringing aboard four new assistants to Jon Gruden 2.0’s first staff. Recently jettisoned Packers defensive line coach Mike Trgovac will land in Oakland as its D-line instructor, and Byron Storer will be the team’s assistant special teams coach. Trgovac coached Green Bay’s defensive lines from 2009-17. The 33-year-old Storer played for Gruden as a fullback in Tampa Bay from 2007-08 but hasn’t coached in the NFL since working with the 2013 Chargers. Additionally, Tim Berbenich and Travis Smith will be offensive and defensive quality control coaches, respectively. Smith’s been a Raiders assistant for most of this decade. He served as outside linebackers coach in 2017 after being promoted from the quality control group last year.

West Notes: Cardinals, Joeckel, Raiders

March 12th, 2017 at 12:07pm CST by Rory Parks

Let’s take a quick swing around the league’s west divisions:

  • We learned earlier today that Tony Jefferson‘s new deal with the Ravens will pay him up to $37MM over four years. We also heard reports in recent days that the Browns and possibly the Jets offered him slightly more money, but that he spurned those offers to sign with Baltimore. As Andy Benoit of TheMMQB writes in a detailed piece on Jefferson’s free agent journey, Jefferson’s former team, the Cardinals, made him an initial “low-ball” offer of three years, $12MM, before upping their proposal to four years and $24MM, still well short of the winning bid.
  • Mike Jurecki of FoxSports910 passes along some contract details on two of the Cardinals‘ recent signings (Twitter links). Jurecki reports that safety Antoine Bethea‘s new three-year deal will pay him yearly base salaries of $2MM, $3MM, and $3MM, while A.Q. Shipley‘s new two-year pact is worth a total of $3.5MM with base salaries of $775K and $1.5MM, $725K in guarantees, and $250K in roster bonuses for 2017 and 2018.
  • Luke Joeckel‘s new one-year deal with the Seahawks will pay him a fully-guaranteed $7MM, with an additional $1MM available in per-game roster bonuses (Twitter link via Tom Pelissero of USA Today).
  • Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets that Robbie Gould‘s new two-year pact with the 49ers is worth a total of $4MM, with $1MM fully guaranteed.
  • The Raiders will likely not have a lease agreement for a proposed Las Vegas stadium in place before the league owners meet later this month, a meeting during which they could approve the team’s relocation bid. However, as noted in a piece from the Associated Press, the absence of a finalized lease agreement does not mean the league owners will be precluded from voting on the relocation proposal. Instead, they could conditionally approve the relocation as long as the lease adequately addresses issues that are important to the league.
  • The Raiders have made a few changes to their coaching staff, as Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com writes. Last season’s assistant secondary coach, Rod Woodson, will coach cornerbacks, as he did previously, and Brent Vieselmeyer, who was assistant linebackers coach last year, will coach the safeties in 2017. Meanwhile, Travis Smith has been promoted from quality control to outside linebackers coach, and Nick Holz is now the assistant receivers coach. Nate Tice, son of offensive line coach Mike Tice, is the offensive quality control coach.
  • We learned earlier today that the Broncos and OT Donald Stephenson have agreed to a restructured deal.