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A Few Notes on the Hiring of Declan Doyle as Offensive Coordinator

| January 29th, 2025


Declan Doyle is the new offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears. What does it mean?

  • Ben Johnson is now firmly placed in the lineage of Bill Parcells, which trace through Sean Payton to Dan Campbell. (The Dennis Allen hiring at DC furthers this.) Few coaching trees have been more successful than that of Parcells, and everyone in Chicago should hope that continues.
  • A friend who has worked with Declan texted me the following: “He’s a stud. Outstanding hire. He’s a super genius.” Said another friend, “Guaranteed to be a head coach down the road.”
  • This is an interesting hire for Johnson, and in many ways it’s a legacy hire. Young coaches pride themselves on their staffs getting hired around the league and that is surely what Johnson is projecting here.
  • I’m not particularly interested in Doyle’s family tree. Don’t care that his dad was some awful college coach. (Most college head coaches are awful people.) Don’t care that Mike Ditka is his uncle. (Would prefer to see an end to the hero worshipping of the 1985 club, name of this site notwithstanding.) Declan is his own guy.
  • I would be slightly surprised if Johnson doesn’t add a veteran coach to his offensive room, and his interviewing David Shaw suggested such.

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