MOBILE, Ala. — New quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph will play a crucial role in one of the biggest decisions in the Bears’ recent history: Will the team bet on Justin Fields to rise toward the top of the NFL or select his replacement with the No. 1 pick in the draft in April?
Joseph is going to help them answer that question but hasn’t gotten started on it yet.
‘‘I don’t even know where my office is yet in the building,’’ Joseph said. ‘‘I haven’t set foot to really think about anything outside of getting transitioned over there and coming down here. Everything happened pretty fast for me.’’
The Bears hired Joseph on Friday, and he is the quarterbacks coach for the American team this week at the Senior Bowl. None of the four quarterbacks he’s working with is projected as a high draft pick.
While the Bears always are looking for gems in the late rounds or as undrafted free agents, the more important work they need Joseph to do is to scout top talent, such as USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels.
They also need him to study Fields’ film and assess his trajectory, and Joseph said Tuesday he’s mostly unfamiliar with him because he was the Seahawks’ assistant receivers coach when Fields was in the draft.
He called Fields, Tyson Bagent and Nathan Peterman to introduce himself this week.
As he analyzes film, Joseph has ‘‘a list of critical factors’’ he tries to identify. Those details fit under the umbrella of his D-T-A principle, which stands for decision, timing and accuracy.
From there, he’s looking for attributes that don’t show up on film, especially with draft prospects. He wants to see accountability and responsibility and to discern whether players are passionate competitors when the Bears interview them.
‘‘You’ve gotta know the person,’’ Joseph said. ‘‘You’ve gotta have a great leader. It starts with the person. Coaching is about relationships, then you can teach football.’’
General manager Ryan Poles planned to keep interviews open-ended with prospective coaches when it came to his plans at quarterback because he wanted ‘‘to see the versatility and the adaptability in their teaching.’’
That was how the Bears approached their offensive-coordinator interviews, and they eventually hired former Seahawks coordinator Shane Waldron. Joseph worked under Waldron in Seattle for the last three seasons.
When Joseph spent the day at Halas Hall for interviews, he said the conversations centered on him rather than on the potential options at quarterback.
‘‘Throughout the interview process, it’s just about me and about my coaching technique, my fundamentals,’’ Joseph said. ‘‘It’s about showing who I am and how I can help this team be victorious and win some ballgames.’’
Joseph, 50, played quarterback at McNeese State in the 1990s, then tried to make it as a receiver with the Bengals and later as a safety with the Seahawks. He also starred at quarterback in the Canadian Football League before getting his start in coaching as a training-camp intern with the Saints in 2014.
He has coached running backs, receivers and quarterbacks, and that background, coupled with his time on defense, expanded his view of how to coach quarterbacks.
‘‘When I went back to playing quarterback, I saw it from a defensive mentality,’’ he said. ‘‘So [I’m] able to help guys understand the game, not just from the offensive side but also from the defensive side, and help them with where to put their eyes. That’s what it did for me as a player.’’
Joseph took an unconventional path, but now he has the greatest opportunity of his career. It’s also likely the most difficult one. In the last three seasons, the Bears have fired five coaches who worked with their quarterbacks in an effort to fix a perpetual problem. If Joseph succeeds where so many others have failed, it’ll be a breakthrough for the franchise and for his career.
