Chicago Bears: 3 potential replacements for Vic Fangio

The Chicago Bears are now in the market for a new defensive coordinator.

The bad news is the Chicago Bears will be looking for a new defensive coordinator after the Denver Broncos hired Vic Fangio to be their next head coach on Wednesday. Fangio was beloved within the locker room for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, he was an outstanding teacher. For evidence of this, look no further than his past. In every one of his prior stops, he coached up his defensive unit to be one of the top units in the league. He also had an uncanny ability to extract the most out of players — think Navarro Bowman and Patrick Willis. That continued with his work in Chicago, specifically with Akiem HIcks, among many others.

Second, he was beloved by his players in the locker room. While he can often appear outwardly surly due to his nature of answering questions directly, his players loved playing for him.

But the mastermind behind the No. 1 ranked defense is now gone, and the Bears find themselves in a position that successful teams often do — having their coordinators poached.

However, there is good news. The good news is the Bears will have no shortage of potential candidates to replace him. In fact, they will likely have some of the best defensive coordinators knocking down the door to coach players like Hicks, Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson, Roquan Smith, Kyle Fuller, et al.

With that in mind, we take a look at the top three potential candidates to replace Vic.