Bears hire Brandon Staley to coach outside linebackers

The Bears might have renowned defensive coordinator Vic Fangio around to coach their outside linebackers, but the team never ruled out bringing in some help.

That help officially would be Brandon Staley.

On the same day that receivers coach Zach Azzanni was added to coach John Fox’s staff, the Bears named Staley their outside linebackers coach.

Staley, who has 11 years of college coaching experience, replaces Clint Hurtt, whose contract was not renewed. Hurtt is now the Seahawks’ defensive line coach.

Staley was recently named defensive coordinator at Tennessee-Chattanooga, where he followed new head coach Tom Arth from Division-III John Carroll. Staley was named the Division-III coordinator of the year in 2016 by FootballScoop.com — an honor voted on by previous winners. He began his coaching career at Northern Illinois.

Fangio still is expected to have a hands-on role in the development of the Bears’ outside linebackers, a talented group that includes Leonard Floyd, Willie Young and Pernell McPhee.

Swinton left the Bears before last season to be the 49ers’ special-teams coordinator. He was not retained by new 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. Instead, Shanahan hired Richard Hightower away from the Bears. Hightower had replaced Swinton for the 2016 season.