One year after pairing first-time head coach Ben Johnson with first-time offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, the Bears are back in the market for a new OC.
Doyle, 29, is headed to the Baltimore Ravens to fill the same role on new head coach Jesse Minter’s staff, but with an opportunity to become a primary play caller for the first time in his career. He also reportedly withdrew his name from consideration for the Philadelphia Eagles’ OC gig on Monday.
While Doyle’s departure is a blow to the Bears’ offensive skeleton built in the last year, it’s not unexpected. And the Bears are in a good spot to withstand it.
“I know we already have some slips coming through that other teams would like to interview some of our guys,” Johnson said during his end-of-season press conference last week. “I’m all for it, man. I want these guys to continue to ascend. (I’ll do) anything I can do to help them out. I think they all know I’m more than willing to do that.
“But a big part of what this collection of guys brought to the table was they all wanted to be here. You know, that was a big thing for me. I want guys that want to be here. So if a guy wants to continue to build upon what we started, then I would love that as well.”
Before coming to the Bears last January, Doyle served as tight ends coach for the Denver Broncos from 2023 through 2024 and as an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints from 2019 to 2022.
Without play-calling duties in Chicago, he became an extension of the head coach in meetings and upstairs in the coaches’ booth on game days. That’s what Johnson was looking for when hiring his first offensive coordinator.
Said Johnson last January: “The offensive coordinator position is going to have to be somebody that not only I trust but will be extremely detail-oriented, organized and structured to set the table. Also willing to work late nights.”
In his short stint with the Bears, Doyle also worked closely with quarterback Caleb Williams, becoming a voice of authority for the second-year quarterback throughout the summer and into training camp.
“There can be a lot of cooks in the kitchen,” Johnson said back in August. “By design we’ve been very selective in who is in charge of what with (Williams). (J.T. Barrett) leading the charge, he’s the quarterback coach in that way. I’ve stepped back a little bit over the course of the week and allowed Declan and allowed (pass game coordinator Press Taylor) to really lead the charge in that room in terms of what’s the intent of the play, what should we be doing with our drop, what should we be doing with our eyes. They see the game through my lens. I trust them to be able to articulate that.”
Despite not calling plays in the regular season, his new gig with the Ravens won’t be Doyle’s first opportunity either. He first called plays in the Bears’ second preseason game last season – a 38-0 rout against the Buffalo Bills.
“That was awesome,” Doyle said the following week. “You talk about a guy who’s a teacher at heart. Ben, to give me that opportunity to go do that, he put up 370 yards of offense leading up to it. We were up 28-0. I went to call the plays, and we were up so much that it was like, ‘Okay, here we go.’ It’s a little bit different experience, but it was awesome.”
In 33 plays under Doyle’s direction, the Bears ran it 20 times for 79 yards, including an Ian Wheeler touchdown, and threw the ball 13 times for 78 yards.
“I felt like I’ve prepared for that for a long time, but until you’re really in a live-bullet situation, there are things that come up while you’re doing it that you may not be able to simulate. I think that the biggest learning experience was just having to do it in real time as the situation changes and having to work through that thought process.”
