The Chicago Bears have hired former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be their head coach and perhaps the second-most important role on his staff will be defensive coordinator. In searching for his other half, Johnson has looked to the Los Angeles Rams and requested an interview with Aubrey Pleasant, L.A.’s assistant head coach and defensive passing game coordinator.
This would make Pleasant one of the most important defensive coordinators in the NFC and possibly streamlined for a head coaching job in the future.
The #Bears have requested #Rams assistant head coach & passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant to interview for their vacant DC job under Ben Johnson, source said. A key reason Chris Shula’s defense impressed so much late in the season.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 23, 2025
Pleasant’s major college coaching career started at Michigan in 2011 and he moved up to the NFL with a job as assistant defensive backs coach on the Cleveland Browns in 2013. From there he went to Washington, which would be when he first worked with Sean McVay, and he followed McVay to the Rams in 2017 as L.A.’s cornerbacks coach.
Pleasant went back to the state of Michigan in 2021 when Dan Campbell hired him as the defensive backs coach, but he was fired seven games into the 2022 season. Following a brief stint under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay — whom he would have first worked with on the Rams — Pleasant went back to McVay in 2023.
Johnson and Pleasant would have overlapped for a time in Detroit and now it appears that the Bears new head coach would like to give him a second chance. Though Pleasant’s time with Campbell didn’t work out as he hoped, it could pay off in the long run.
According to sources, Ben Johnson, the current wide receivers coach for the Los Angeles Rams, is reportedly interested in poaching some of Sean McVay’s staff members to join him in Chicago with the Bears.
Johnson, who has worked closely with McVay for several years, is said to be impressed with the coaching talent that McVay has assembled in Los Angeles and believes that bringing some of them with him to Chicago could help turn the struggling Bears franchise around.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, it will be interesting to see if Johnson is able to lure any of McVay’s staff away from the Rams and to the Bears. Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.
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- Ben Johnson
- McVay’s staff
- Chicago Bears
- Poaching staff
- Coaching staff
- NFL news
- NFL rumors
- Head coach search
- Chicago football
- Staff recruitment
#Ben #Johnson #poach #McVays #staff #Bears
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