Bear Digest

First Bears female coach among assistants no longer with the team

The list of retained assistant Bears coaches has dwindled to only a few and one of those no longer with them is the first female assistant coach in NFL and Bears history.

Gene Chamberlain

Running backs assistant Jennifer King shakes hands with running back Travis Homer during warmups for the Hall of Fame Game.
Running backs assistant Jennifer King shakes hands with running back Travis Homer during warmups for the Hall of Fame Game. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
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The first female assistant coach in Bears history is now history for the franchise.

Assistant running backs coach Jennifer King is among the coaches from the Bears staff who have not been retained.

The Bears never had a female assistant in their first 104 years until hiring King, who was a standout player in her own right.

King also had been the first full-time female head coach in league history prior to coming to the Bears.

She played in the Women's Football Alliance at quarterback, defensive back, receiver and safety for several teams, and in 2018 was hired by the Carolina Panthers as an intern coach before going to Washington with Ron Rivera in 2020 as a full-time coach.

Last year she was running backs assistant to Chad Morton. The team had already parted ways with Morton. Both King and Morton were featured prominently in the HBO Hard Knocks series working with Velus Jones Jr. and Ian Wheeler. They waived Jones during the regular season after he had three runs for 11 yards and an 8-yard reception in 2024. He wound up with Carolina. Wheeler is still with the team but was on IR after suffering a torn ACL in preseason.

As of Friday, the only position coaches the team had available from last year's staff for the new staff were tight ends coach Jim Dray, assistant defensive line coach Bryan Bing, quarterbacks and receivers assistant Robbie Picazo and special teams assistant Carlos Polk.

They also still have offensive quality control coach Zach Cable and defensive quality control coaches Kevin Koch and Kenny Norton III still on staff.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.