Continuing a shake-up of the Bears’ offensive coaching staff in the wake of a disappointing 8-8 season, coach Matt Nagy hired former Jaguars offensive coordinator John DeFilippo as quarterbacks coach Wednesday and moved quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone to passing game coordinator, sources confirmed. ESPN first reported the moves.
DeFilippo — who spent 5 1/2 hours interviewing with chairman George McCaskey, president Ted Phillips and GM Ryan Pace for the Bears’ head coaching job that went to Matt Nagy in 2018 — was fired by the Jaguars on Monday. Under DeFilippo, prized free agent Nick Foles struggled after recovering from a broken clavicle — an 80.9 passer rating (two touchdowns, two interceptions) in three consecutive losses and lost the starting job.
Sixth-round draft pick Gardner Minshew initially excelled in place of Foles — a 105.6 rating in his first five games (nine touchdowns, one interception) following Foles’ injury. But was up-and-down after that — an 83.4 rating in his final nine games (12 touchdowns, five interceptions).
DeFilippo is best known for his work as quarterbacks coach with the Eagles in 2017. Carson Wentz had a breakout second season and was an MVP candidate before suffering a season-ending injury (101.9 rating, 33 touchdowns, seven interceptions). Foles replaced him and was stellar in leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl championship — with a 115.7 rating (six touchdowns, one interception) in three playoff games.
DeFilippo parlayed that success into the offensive coordinator’s job with the Vikings in 2018. But he was fired after 13 games as the Vikings’ dropped from 11th to 17th in yards, 10th to 20th in points and — most notably — seventh to 30th in rushing yards.
Ragone, the lone offensive coach retained by Nagy when he replaced John Fox in 2018, has been Mitch Trubisky’s only position coach since Trubisky was drafted second overall in 2017. Despite Trubisky’s regression in 2019, Ragone is well-regarded as a trusted Trubisky mentor at Halas Hall.
Previously, Nagy replaced offensive line coach Harry Hiestand with former Bills offensive line coach Juan Castillo. He replaced offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich with former Bengals offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. And he replaced tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride with former Vikings tight ends and offensive line coach Clancy Barone.
