The Chicago Bears are filling the vacancies on their offensive staff. After firing four coaches, including offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride, the Bears have added two new faces to Matt Nagy’s coaching staff.
Last week, Juan Castillo joined the Bears coaching staff as offensive line coach, and now Clancy Barone is joining Nagy’s staff as the Bears’ new tight ends coach.
Barone will have a big hurdle to overcome, as tight end is arguably the most concerning area of need on this roster. He’ll be tasked with bettering a tight ends room that right now features Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, Ben Braunecker, J.P. Holtz and Jesper Horsted.
Here are five things to know about the Bears’ new tight ends coach:
1. He’s had success wherever he’s gone
During his tenure in the NFL, Barone has found success in every stop he’s made at the professional level. He’s coached four Pro-Bowl tight ends — the Falcons’ Alge Crumpler, the Chargers’ Antonio Gates, the Broncos’ Julius Thomas and, most recently, the Vikings’ Kyle Rudolph.
Obviously the hope is that Barone can manage to get the best out of a struggling Bears tight ends room — which could look different heading into training camp depending on what the Bears do in free agency and the NFL.
But then you could also argue that Crumpler, Gates, Thomas and Rudolph are all substantially more talented than any of the Bears’ current tight ends. Can Barone make a Pro-Bowler out of a current tight end on the Bears’ roster? Unlikely. Baybe he can get more production from that group than the previous season, which honestly shouldn’t be too hard to do considering how woefully ineffective they were.
2. He has experience coaching offensive line
When Barone hasn’t served as tight ends coach, he’s been an offensive line coach both at the pro and collegiate level. During his time in the NFL, Barone served as offensive line coach with the Falcons (2004), Broncos (2010, 2015-16) and Vikings (2018).
At the collegiate level, Barone served as offensive line coach at American River (1987-90), Sacramento State (1991-92), Texas A&M (1993), Eastern Illinois (1994-96), Wyoming (1997-99), Houston (2000-02) and Texas State (2003).
Barone’s experiencing coaching the offensive line should only help the Bears as they look to fix an ailing run game in 2020.
3. He has 32 years of coaching experience between NFL and college
Barone has plenty of coaching experience — 32 years — between the NFL and the collegiate level both as a tight ends coach and offensive line coach.
During his time in the NFL, Barone served with the Falcons as offensive line coach (2004) and tight ends coach (2005-06); with the Chargers as tight ends coach (2007-08); with the Broncos several times during 2009-16 as tight ends and offensive line coach; and most recently with the Vikings as tight ends coach (2017) and offensive line coach (2018).
Barone also served as offensive line coach at the collegiate level at American River (1987-90), Sacramento State (1991-92), Texas A&M (1993), Eastern Illinois (1994-96), Wyoming (1997-99), Houston (2000-02) and Texas State (2003).
4. Barone worked at Eastern Illinois when Bears GM Ryan Pace played DE
Barone and Bears general manager Ryan Pace go way back — as in back to Pace’s college days at Eastern Illinois University. During Pace’s time as a defensive end at Eastern Illinois, Barone served as offensive line coach.
5. Barone won a Super Bowl with the Broncos in 2015
Barone spent most of his NFL coaching tenure with the Broncos, where he was on-and-off between 2009-2016. During that span, Denver made the playoffs in five of Barone’s eight seasons, which included two AFC championships.
But Barone’s crowning achievement was a Super Bowl victory, where the Broncos defeated the Panthers in 2015.
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