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 Dave Ragone to passing-game coordinator, sources confirmed.
DeFilippo — who spent 5½ hours interviewing with chairman George McCaskey, president Ted Phillips and general manager Ryan Pace for the Bears’ head-coaching job that went to Nagy in 2018 — was fired by the Jaguars on Jan. 13. Under DeFilippo, prized free-agent Nick Foles struggled after recovering from a broken clavicle. He had a 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) — after Foles’ injury. But he was up and down after that, finishing with 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 title 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 highly regarded as a trusted mentor for Trubisky at Halas Hall.
