Bears coaches musical chairs appears to be over

Building NFL coaching staffs is nothing if not incestuous, and the Bears are no exception to the rule.

Following the 2019 season, Matt Nagy elected to overhaul his offensive coaching staff and appeared to focus on finding old comrades and protégés of friends with whom he'd be most comfortable as much or more than clear upgrades over the men they were replacing.

Mark Helfrich, Harry Hiestand and Kevin Gilbride Jr. were hired when Nagy arrived in Chicago in 2018, and none had any obvious connection to their new boss.

When Bill Lazor was hired to replace Helfrich he hadn't worked with Nagy, but they had become friendly, and Lazor did have significant experience working with quarterback Nick Foles.

Nagy and Juan Castillo (Hiestand's replacement) worked together in Philadelphia. Another addition last year, John DiFilippo, was a top assistant to Nagy's best friend, Doug Pederson.

Only tight ends coach Clancy Barone arrived with no clear connection to Nagy.

What that group was however was long on NFL experience.

This year it's the defensive staff that is being rebuilt, and again connections between Nagy and his new staff members are plentiful.

Sean Desai is short on experience for the defensive coordinator job, but he has been right here in Chicago since 2013 and working for Nagy the last three years. Apparently that gave him an edge over more experienced outside candidates the Bears interviewed.

Chris Rumph takes over the defensive line with an extremely impressive college resume but just one year of NFL experience. He coached the Houston Texans' defensive line last season, including J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus.

This would be more concerning if his college stops didn't include Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Texas and Tennessee, all Power Five football factories where he developed 25 different players drafted by NFL teams.

Rumph is the only new hire with no apparent connection to Nagy.

Inside linebackers coach Bill McGovern never worked with Nagy, but he arrived in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Eagles the season after Nagy moved to Kansas City. He comes to Chicago with the most NFL experience of any of the new hires after three years as Eagles linebackers coach and then four seasons coaching linebackers for the New York Giants.

McGovern also brings significant defensive coordinator experience, having held that role four seasons at Boston College - including while Desai was there as the special-teams coordinator - and two seasons at Massachusetts.

Outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey has been here as a defensive quality-control assistant and pass rush analyst since Nagy arrived.

The two worked together in Philadelphia where Shuey spent 10 years, including three as the linebackers coach. Having spent the past three seasons with Nagy and Desai, he was an obvious choice to step into the role vacated by Ted Monachino.

Mike Adams will move into the role vacated by Desai, although as opposed to being the safeties coach he will be the assistant secondary coach working with Deshea Townsend who was elevated from cornerbacks coach to secondary coach.

Adams, who played 16 NFL seasons, has never coached at any level, but the connection here is he and Nagy were teammates for two years at the University of Delaware.

The one offensive addition this year is Michael Pitre - Charles London's replacement as running backs coach - who brings 14 years of college coaching experience.

While Pitre's resume does not rival Rumph's with all of his work at Oregon State, Montana State and Colorado, he studied in the Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship coaching program in Kansas City in 2017 under first-year offensive coordinator Nagy.

Unlike last year's primarily offensive group, this almost exclusively defensive group is markedly short on NFL experience, and it will be interesting to see how the Bears' veteran defense responds to them.

The newbies could prove to be a great staff, but it's hard to argue their selections were as much or more about who they knew than what they've done to date as coaches.

• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush