A great thing about head coach Matt Eberflus is that he’s also open to finding more help for his coaching staff with the Chicago Bears. He achieves this in particular through the popular Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. This is a system designed to help give minority coaches a pipeline into the league. Chicago has expanded its staff through this program several times over the years. It looks like they’re planning to explore it again this summer, but this time it comes with some extra flavor from a few big names.
Larry Mayer of Chicagobears.com reported that Eddie George would be one of six coaches invited to the upcoming activities. George was a four-time Pro Bowler for the Tennessee Titans, rushing for 10,441 yards during his career. He is also a member of the College Football Hall of Famer. With him comes longtime college coach Randy Shannon. He helped the University of Miami win two national championships as an assistant before becoming their head coach in 2007. After four seasons there, he bounced around the country as a defensive coordinator, most recently at Florida State.
“Bears coach Matt Eberflus has announced the additions of Eddie George and Randy Shannon, who will both join the club’s 2023 OTA staff as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship.”
The Chicago Bears could be George’s ticket to the NFL.
The former running back has spent the past two years as Tennessee State’s head coach. He went 9-13 there, which is an improvement from the five total wins they had in the previous two years before his arrival. However, this acceptance of an invitation to Chicago suggests that he could try to enter the NFL coaching ranks. His leadership was well known during his time as a player. His mentality of tenacity and resilience also fits well into the dressing room culture of this team.
It’s not hard to see the Chicago Bears’ interest in Shannon. He has been coaching football since 1991. Over the past three decades he has helped develop some great future NFL studs like Warren Sapp, Ray Lewis, Dan Morgan, Ed Reed, Vince Wilfork, Jonathan Vilma, Sean Taylor, Antrel Rolle, Jon Beason and Calais Campbell. It makes perfect sense to want someone with such a record on your team. Shannon has never coached in the NFL before. Perhaps he is trying to seize this opportunity before it is too late.
