Coaching Move: Bears hire running back coach Chad Morton |
In what seems like a new hire every few hours, the Chicago Bears continue to round their new-look coaching staff as Matt Eberflus continues to turn this organization inside. We should specify that Shane Waldron is continuing to create his staff as he wants to put together the best possible offensive coaching staff around.
After adding three coaches over the past week, Waldron made it four on Wednesday as Chad Morton agreed to become the team's RB coach for the 2024 season. As discussed the past few days, the Bears had three open coaching positions on the offensive side, including the RB coach. With Morton taking over that opening, Chicago is down to finding an Assistant TEs coach to fill out the remainder of their offensive staff. This hire will almost certainly be under the microscope, as David Walker was fired midseason by Eberflus due to an HR issue. Morton will be stepping into his role without a dark cloud on his shoulder and taking over an RB room with the likes of Khalil Herbert, Roschon Johnson, and potentially some other names set to come in. Seeing Morton take this position shouldn't surprise anyone, as his name came up when Waldron was hired. Another former NFL player turned coach, Morton, was a sixth-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in 2000. His playing career was short-lived as he lasted just seven seasons in the league with stops at the Saints (2000), Jets (2001-02), Washington (2003-04), and Giants (2005-06) along the way. After hanging up his cleats in 2006, Morton took a few years away from the game before entering the coaching ranks in 2009 as part of the Green Bay Packers staff. He would spend the first five years of his coaching career with the Packers before venturing to Seattle in 2014, where he remained ever since. Anytime you can spend more than a decade with one team, you are doing something right, and the Seahawks must've loved what Morton did in Seattle to keep him there that long. More importantly, Waldron must love what Morton is about, as they worked together in Seattle for the past three seasons. Both know each other well and understand what it takes to create a potent offense around a specific player's strengths. Along with his work in the RB room, Morton has also worked with Special Teams, and that alone will come in handy. That is something you continue to see with these recent hires by Waldron, as he values versatility just as much as he values experience. Morton has the coaching experience and is versatile enough to move across the offense to fill different coaching roles. While he hasn't done much to earn a ton of big-time recognition as a coach just yet, Morton is one of 10 players in NFL history to return multiple kicks for touchdowns in the same game. Not only does he have a connection with Waldron, but Morton is also a former member of the USC Trojans, which has some intrigue attached to it. Granted, he never played or coached Caleb Williams, but Morton may have had conversations with his former Alma Matter about football in general. He may have spoken with Williams a few times while on campus, which may be enough to convince Ryan Poles and the rest of the Bears' front office to pull the trigger on him at No. 1. The pressure was on for Eberflus to replace his offensive and defensive coordinators with quality hires, and he appears to have done that. Not only that, but it also seems that his offensive coordinator is making it a point to create a quality staff aimed at putting together the best offense possible. It may seem strange to see three former Seahawk coaches on the same staff, but you see that when a new coach is brought in from a different organization. They tend to surround themselves with people they trust and feel comfortable working with, and Morton is another one of those guys.
