Former Bears Line Coach Taking Over Defense
The Bears have chosen an experienced defensive coordinator who coached for them in the past.
Eric Washington is being hired by coach Matt Eberflus to serve as Bears defensive coordinator.
Lovie Smith hired Washington to their staff in 2008 after he'd been on the staff at Northwestern for four seasons, from 2004-2007.
“My family and I are beyond excited to be returning to the Chicago Bears,” Washington said in a statement released by the team. “It is humbling to have the opportunity to contribute to one of the most esteemed sports organizations in the world."
Washington was with the Bears three seasons before he went to the Carolina Panthers with Ron Rivera as head coach and was defensive coordinator for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, before the whole staff was fired.
A defensive line coach with the Bears in 2010 when they last made the NFC Championship Game, Washington originally held the title of defensive assistant for two years with them. He was a line coach with the Panthers for the first seven seasons before he became a coordinator.
Since leaving the Panthers, Washington was hired in 2020 to be on Leslie Frazier's defensive staff with Buffalo as defensive line coach. He was the defensive line coach/assistant head coach this past season after Frazier had left the team and coach Sean McDermott also served as acting defensive coordinator.
Eberflus hasn't said whether he'll continue to call the defensive plays for the Bears.
"Yeah, so we're still looking at that," Eberflus said at season's end. "I think it's something I've stated I love to do, but as we talk to these candidates, we're going to keep everything open right now, but certainly welcome that again for next year, but we'll see as we go through this process."
Washington has both called defensive plays and hasn't called them during his brief time as an NFL defensive coordinator. Washington started out doing it in 2018 for the Panthers but in December Rivera took the play-calling duties back over from him.
Former defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned as the Bears prepared to play the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3. He had missed the Week 2 game with Tampa Bay while the organization's human resource department looked into what sources later labeled "inappropriate activity."
Williams said in a statement that he had resigned "taking a step back to take care of my health and my family."
From Week 2 on, Eberflus took over as the defensive play caller. He came to the Bears as a former Colts defensive coordinator.
Washington, 54, played football at Grambling State in 1989-90 and graduated with a degree in education from the school in 1993.
He became a graduate assistant coach for Texas A&M in 1997 and then defensive line coach at Ohio from 2001-03 before coaching at Northwestern under the late Randy Walker and then Pat Fitzgerald.
When Washington was promoted to Bears defensive line coach in 2010 by Smith, the Bears had 34 sacks. They were ninth in total defense and fourth in scoring defense that year, while ranking second against the run. In 2019 Washington as coordinator, Carolina finished second in the NFL in sacks with 53. When Washington was Carolina's defensive line coach from 2011-17, Panthers defensive linemen produced 219 sacks and the team had an NFL high of 280 sacks.
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