The Bears are considering another defensive coordinator candidate with past ties to the organization from the Lovie Smith era.
The Bears asked permission to interview Buffalo Bills defensive line coach Eric Washington for their defensive coordinator position, according to a report by Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports.
Washington was the Bears defensive line coach when they went to the NFC Championship Game in 2010. He had been hired by Lovie Smith as an assistant in 2008 and was promoted for 2010 before leaving in 2011 to be Carolina Panthers defensive line coach for three years when former Bears player and defensive coordinator Ron Rivera became Panthers head coach.
Washington is more qualified in terms of experience as a defensive coordinator than the other two candidates reported, former Bears player and assistant Chris Harris and Titans defensive line coach/assistant head coach Terrell Williams.
Neither Harris, who is defensive passing game coordinator and safeties coach for the Titans, nor Williams, have been a defensive coordinator. Washington did it for two seasons for the Panthers under Rivera and the Panthers finished 15th and 23rd on defense, 19th and 31st in scoring defense. They were 12th and 29th against the run and 18th and 13th against the pass.
The Panthers fired Rivera in December of 2019 and his staff was let go after the season.
The Bears were Washington’s first NFL team as a coach but not first in Chicago. He was Northwestern’s defensive line coach from 2004-07 after starting as an assistant coach at Texas A&M in 1997. Washington coached the Panthers defensive line from 2011-2017 under Rivera.
After serving as Panthers defensive coordinator, he moved on to be defensive line coach for the Bills in 2020-21 and in 2022 took the added title of senior defensive assistant besides defensive line coach, then assistant head coach and defensive line coach in 2023.
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