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News surfaced on Thursday that Kliff Kingsbury is expected to interview for the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator job, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Kingsbury, a senior offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach at USC in 2023, is the ninth reported candidate expected to interview for the Bears’ position after Luke Getsy was fired on Jan. 10.
Kingsbury overlapped at USC with Caleb Williams — who is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. If the Bears decide to trade Justin Fields and draft Williams, then it makes sense that the Bears are interviewing Kingsbury.
But although there is an obvious connection between the two, Kingsbury shouldn’t be the Bears’ next offensive play caller.
While Kingsbury was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2019-2022, his Air Raid scheme with Kyler Murray didn’t create enough consistency. It’s also worth noting that during the 2022 season, Kingsbury’s last year with the Cardinals before he was fired, Murray only played 11 games. He missed two due to a hamstring injury and tore his ACL in the team’s Week 14 loss to the Patriots.
| Cardinals Offense | Total Yards/G | Passing Yards/G | Rushing Yards/G | Points Per Game |
| 2022 Season | 323.5 (22nd) | 213.3 (18th) | 110.2 (22nd) | 20 (21st) |
| 2021 Season | 373.6 (8th) | 151.5 (10th) | 122.1 (10th) | 26.4 (11th) |
| 2020 Season | 384.6 (6th) | 244.8 (17th) | 139.8 (7th) | 25.6 (13th) |
| 2019 Season | 341.7 (21st) | 217.3 (24th) | 124.4 (10th) | 22.6 (17th) |
Kingsbury came into the NFL with a reputation of developing young, talented quarterbacks. He was the quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M when Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012. Kingsbury also was the head coach at Texas Tech with Patrick Mahomes.
And it wouldn’t be fair to say that Kingbury didn’t have some success with his style of offense in the NFL. Murray did end up making two consecutive Pro Bowls in 2020 and 2021, but the quarterback’s prior success didn’t carry over to start the 2022 season. In 11 games played, Murray finished with 14 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions and 2,368 yards. He was also sacked 25 times.
According to Pro Football Focus, Murray threw two touchdowns and five interceptions when pressured. For quarterbacks with a minimum of 25 drop backs, he finished with 3.8 yards per attempt — third lowest in 2022.
When Murray was kept clean, he performed well. He threw 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions, but the Cardinals’ offense didn’t provide good enough answers when teams brought pressure.
Also, hiring Kingsbury would go against what the main trend in the NFL has been with hiring offensive minds that have branched off the Kyle Shanahan tree. Of the nine candidates the Bears have requested to interview, three of them haven’t had any overlap with that style of offense: Brown, Roman and Kingsbury.
Kingsbury is an intriguing candidate, and general manager Ryan Poles will learn more about Williams and how his 2023 season went after his interview. This season, Williams had some down performances, so getting some insight on how the quarterback handled a three-interception game against Notre Dame would be insightful.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Kingsbury to eventually land another opportunity as an offensive coordinator in the NFL, but it shouldn’t be with the Bears and potentially Williams next season.
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