Assistant GM Reveals Overlooked Reason Bears Were Lucky To Keep Al Harris

The Chicago Bears have now lost two key assistant coaches to jobs elsewhere. Eric Bieniemy left to become the offensive coordinator in Kansas City. Declan Doyle took the same job in Baltimore. Head coach Ben Johnson must look for replacements. Thankfully, it didn’t include a third name. For the past two weeks, there were serious rumblings that defensive backs coach Al Harris might leave for a defensive coordinator position elsewhere. Four separate teams interviewed him for the job.

By a stroke of luck, all four chose different candidates. Barring a late change, Harris appears set to return for another year in Chicago. This is great news for the secondary, which thrived this season, with both Kevin Byard and Nahshon Wright making the Pro Bowl. However, the good fortune doesn’t end there. One NFL executive revealed that keeping Harris will be a huge benefit to the Bears in another way. That will be their likely goal of selecting a safety in the upcoming NFL draft.

One cannot overstate how challenging it will be.

Veteran scouts will tell you it’s a difficult position to draft — more challenging than you might think.

“It takes so much tape because for a 65-play game, they don’t do (crap) for 40 plays,” an assistant GM said. “If offensive coordinators come through the quarterback room — and we know what a difficult position quarterback is to evaluate — defensive coordinators often come through the DB room because you have to understand the whole field. You have to understand the concept and what is being asked, what coverage are they running.

“With cornerbacks, you are hyperfocused on the movement traits and leverage and is he reading stems and all that. Safety, if you don’t have an experienced guy evaluating them, you’re in trouble because there is so much nuance to it. There’s so much focus on leverage, technique, where his eyes are. It’s not just traits and, ‘OK, this guy can run. He works.’”

Al Harris can help the Bears evade a big problem.

One must not forget the team has four safeties hitting free agency this year, including both of their starters. The chances of Chicago retaining all four seem remote, meaning there will be at least one void they must fill. Early projections have Jaquan Brisker being a likely casualty. The same goes for C.J. Gardner-Johnson. There is no chance the team can replace both in free agency. They don’t have the cap space. Instead, expect them to go after somebody in the draft, and that is where Al Harris comes in.

He’s played and coached defensive backs for almost 30 years. In that time, he has seen plenty of great safeties like Brian Dawkins, Darren Sharper, Nick Collins, and Eric Berry. Harris understands what the good ones are supposed to look like. His steady eye should help guide the Bears through the difficult process of finding somebody in this draft who can be a long-term solution. Remember, even if Byard returns, he is in his mid-30s. They need a young infusion, regardless of his presence.