Former New Orleans Saints Interim Head Coach Darren Rizzi is on the radar as a candidate to join Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears coaching staff.
To be clear, the Johnson hire hasn’t been made officially official by the Bears just yet. So there is a part of me that wants to hold my horses on that front. After all, I *AM* old enough to remember the Dave McGinnis fiasco. However, Johnson’s agency sent a tweet earlier making it official on their end. So while we await confirmation from Chicago’s football team, we can start piecing together the rest of the offseason — including potential candidates to join Johnson’s staff.
For instance, Darren Rizzi is reportedly a candidate for the team’s special teams coordinator role. ESPN’s Adam Schefter has more on that:
It is worth noting that the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs (via Twitter/X) also pegged Rizzi as a candidate for the special teams coordinator job with the Bears. Like Schefter, Biggs noted that other teams are in the hunt for the former New Orleans Saints interim head coach. This is a fascinating development and worth following.
Richard Hightower is currently the Bears’ special teams coach. And even though I think he has been OK in that role, I am completely open to Ben Johnson getting to pick his own coaching staff. So if that means a respected coach gets squeezed out for a potential upgrade — whether it is Darren Rizzi or someone else, then so be it. The old Bears would not have done things this way. But as I learned while watching The Wire, the thing about the old days is that they’re the old days.
Who is Darren Rizzi and is he a good fit for the Bears?
Darren Rizzi, 54, is a long-time football coach who has ample experience coaching special teams. Rizzi has a bunch of NFL-level special teams coaching experience with the New Orleans Saints (2019-24) and Miami Dolphins (2010-16). But he also did it in college at Northeastern (1998) and Rutgers (2002-07). In addition to his special teams expertise, Rizzi has some notable head coaching experience. You might be familiar with Rizzi because he took over for Dennis Allen (a candidate for the Bears defensive coordinator gig) in New Orleans earlier in the year., But he also has head-coaching experience at the University of Rhode Island and the University of New Haven. That’s different!
For what it’s worth, the vaunted Rick Gosselin special teams rankings had the Saints checking in as the second-best unit in football last year. Only the Houston Texans scored better. That feels noteworthy. As does the nugget that the special teams unit for Chicago’s football team finished 22nd in the same rankings. Ultimately, it leads me to think that the Bears could stand to get better coaching and execution from that phase of the game. If Darren Rizzi ends up getting the job in Chicago, I’ll certainly dig into his unit’s history over the years to see how it scored on the Gosselin rankings. But there is no need to do too much deep diving on a Monday night.
