Chicago Bears: What the John DeFilippo hire means
What does the hiring of John DeFilippo as the quarterbacks coach mean for the Chicago Bears?
In a bit of an unexpected move, word broke early Wednesday evening that the Chicago Bears hired John DeFilippo as their quarterbacks coach, promoting Dave Ragone to passing game coordinator.
The move to promote Ragone is almost as surprising as the DeFilippo hire, but that’s a story for another day. For now, the Bears add a high-quality offensive coach to the mix and this can only be seen as good news and a great hire for the quarterback room.
You may recall DeFilippo, then the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach was interviewed by Ryan Pace for the Bears’ head coaching position before he hired Matt Nagy. DeFilippo was instead hired as the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, before being fired after one year. Last season, he served as the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars before again being let go.
While he has not found his way as an OC, his ability to work with quarterbacks is impressive. Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson was effusive in his praise of the job DeFilippo did developing Carson Wentz, and he no doubt had a hand in Gardner Minshew’s success as a rookie last year.
As he begins his tenure with the Bears his mission will be descriptively simple idea profoundly difficult — help fix the quarterback situation. Who will make up the quarterback room remains a mystery but we know it will include Mitchell Trubisky. If the Bears ride with Mitch, DeFilippo’s presence can help Trubisky with his two biggest issues — footwork and reading defenses/going through progressions.
In this regard, the Bears are continuing to improve the infrastructure around Mitch (along with a run game coordinator and an offensive coordinator also known for his QB development) such that he will be out of excuses if it doesn’t work this year.
Next. Hunter Bryant is the answer at tight end for Bears. dark
If they choose to bring in a free agent to start and draft a quarterback, he can soak up as much as possible and work with DeFilippo to develop into the eventual starter.
In other words, this hire is a win/win for the Bears as it will pay dividends regardless of the direction in which they go.