The Chicago Bears have had head coach Matt Nagy for less than a week, and he is already making a good impression. Since being officially introduced on Tuesday afternoon, he and GM Ryan Pace have not messed around, as they have already made key hires. Though there are still coaching positions to be filled, the basic structure has been put in place.
The two key hires under Nagy include OC Mark Helfrich and retaining DC Vic Fangio. Other coaches have been hired which cover the special teams, running backs, and offensive line. The supporting cast of Nagy's coaching scheme was asked about during his press conference, and he responded that they were simply going to work and evaluate.
The full staff should be together very soon.
The coordinators
Retaining Vic Fangio was one of the biggest goals of Pace and Nagy. They worked for several days to try to keep him on board, and they finally reached an agreement on a three-year deal. Fangio had been with the Bears since 2015 and will continue to work on a young defensive corps that has vastly improved over the past three years. The deadline to retain him was today and there were talks that if he did not agree to a deal, the Bears were looking at Cardinals DC James Bettcher as an alternative.
New Bears’ HC Matt Nagy has successfully recruited DC Vic Fangio, convincing him to stay in Chicago on a three-year contract, per source. Agreeement just reached.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 12, 2018
#AZCardinals DC James Bettcher still in play with Chicago. #Bears DC Vic Fangio will likely follow Pat Shurmur wherever he lands.
— Mike Jurecki (@mikejurecki) January 12, 2018
In terms of offensive coordinator, the Bears got Mark Helfrich who had coached with Oregon from 2009-2016.
Helfrich (44) is another young body on the staff. He will be assisting on the offense seeing as Nagy has confirmed he will be calling the plays. He was both an offensive coordinator and head coach in Oregon and worked with Chip Kelly. This will be his first coaching job in the NFL.
Other coaches
The Bears announced that they will bring on Chris Tabor as Special Teams Coach, Harry Hiestand as O-line coach and Charles London as running backs coach.
All of these coaches worked for the Bears at one point.
Long-time Cleveland Browns special teams coach Chris Tabor will now be on Nagy's staff. Tabor had previously worked with the Bears prior to 2011 with then-special teams coach Dave Toub. While the Browns have struggled mightily as a team, the special teams units worked well under Tabor.
On the offensive side Charles London comes from the Houston Texans where he worked for three years -- he also worked on the Bears' staff in the late 2000s. Lastly, Harry Hiestand returns to the Bears after six years at Notre Dame. He was the line coach under Lovie Smith when they went to the Super Bowl in 2006.
