Final touches? Bears’ Matt Eberflus appears to round out staff with 3 more hires

He added a running backs coach and two other offensive assistants Wednesday.

SHARE Final touches? Bears’ Matt Eberflus appears to round out staff with 3 more hires
Matt Eberflus appears to be ready to roll for his debut season.

Matt Eberflus appears to be ready to roll for his debut season.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Bears coach Matt Eberflus appears to have his staff in place for his debut season. While he could still add some low-level assistants, Eberflus filled out his crew of position coaches by hiring David Walker to handle running backs Wednesday.

Walker starred at Syracuse in the early 1990s and was the school’s running backs coach from 1995 through 2003. He spent the next seven seasons in that role for University of Pittsburgh before joining the Colts in 2011. He has seven seasons of experience coaching running backs in the NFL, most recently from 2016 through ’18 with the Lions.

He left coaching three years ago to pursue other opportunities, saying, “At this junction of my life, I realize that my family needs outweigh my desire to continue coaching football.”

The Bears also signed former Packers offensive assistant Tim Zetts to serve as assistant tight ends coach under Jim Dray and added Omar Young as an offensive quality control coach. Young was in that role for the Packers in 2017 and ’18 and spent the last three seasons at Eastern Illinois.

Zetts and Young both overlapped with new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy during his seven seasons as an assistant for the Packers.

Getsy, defensive coordinator Alan Williams and special teams coordinator Richard Hightower will speak to the media Thursday for the first time since Eberflus hired them.

The Latest
In moments, her 11th album feels like a bloodletting: A cathartic purge after a major heartbreak delivered through an ascendant vocal run, an elegiac verse, or mobile, synthesized productions that underscore the powers of Swift’s storytelling.
Sounds of explosions near an air base in Isfahan on Friday morning prompted fears of Israeli reprisals following a drone and missile strike by Iran on Israeli targets. State TV in Tehran reported defenses fired across several provinces.
Hall participated in Hawks morning skate Thursday — on the last day of the season — for the first time since his surgery in November. He expects to be fully healthy for training camp next season.
Bedard entered the season finale Thursday with 61 points in 67 games, making him the most productive Hawks teenager since Patrick Kane in 2007-08, but he’s not entirely pleased with his performance.