Another Bears OC Candidate with Ties to Rams

The search for coaches with past ties to the Los Angeles Rams continue for the Bears, as they were interviewing Carolina Panthers offensive coordinattor Thomas Brown Wednesday according to a league source.

Brown has play-calling experience as offensive coordinator last season in the NFL with Carolina. He was also an offensive coordinator for three years in college. Brown was working under Frank Reich last season and Reich was Bears coach Matt Eberflus' boss with the Indianapolis Colts.

Brown didn't call plays for the Panthers the full 2023 season. Reich called plays for the first six games, all losses, then turned it over to Brown. Reich was fired Nov. 27 and Chris Tabor, the former Bears special teams coordinator, took over as interim head coach.

The Panthers offense did one thing last year when Brown was OC that could be of great interest to the Bears. They scored 30 points against the Packers.

Brown worked with QB Bryce Young last season. The Panthers lost in 2023 16-13 at Soldier Field to a Bears team that had Tyson Bagent playing QB.

Brown, 37, was with the Rams under Sean McVay from 2020-2022. He was running backs coach the first year, then assistant head coach/running backs coach and finally the assistant head coach/tight ends coach before he left for the Panthers.

His college coaching career started with Georgia in strength and conditioning, then he was running backs coach for Chattanooga (2012), Marshall (2013), Wisconsin (2014) and Georgia (2015) before going to Miami from 2016-18. He was a running backs coach at South Carolina in 2019 before going to the Rams.

This follows the interviews with Greg Roman, Greg Olson, Liam Coen, Klint Kubiak and Shane Waldron. All but Olson and Kubiak coached under McVay, and Kubiak is coaching with San Francisco  for Kyle Shanahan, who had ties to McVay.