Report: Chicago Bears make a change at strength and conditioning coach

Leading the league is usually a good thing, but leading the league in games lost to injury is not the kind of stat you want to be number one in. The Chicago Bears have been hit hard with injuries the last three years, all under former head coach John Fox and all under strength and condition coach Jason George.

Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Bears are relieving George of his duties.

George came to Chicago with Fox from Denver, and in 2015 the team had 12 players end the season on injured reserve. In 2016 the Bears had 21 players end on IR, and in 2017 they had 16 players.

All teams are hit by injuries in the NFL, but the Bears feel a change is needed. At his post season press conference, general manager Ryan Pace had this to say about the recent rash of injuries.

“It’s something that’s occurred three consecutive years and something we’ve looked at closely,” Pace said. “We did a lot to address it last year, whether schedule changes, tracking data, a lot of tweaks. But it wasn’t enough. With parity in our league, injuries play a big factor in our results. It’s something we have to get on top of and that’s my job.

“There’s going to be studies into why are these teams the healthiest, why are these teams not, and are there some commonalties? But we have to get that fixed because it’s affecting our results.”

In other assistant coaching news, the Bears interviewed Houston Texans’ quarterback coach Pat O’Hara for the same role in Chicago. And they also interviewed former Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Todd Downing for their quarterback coaching job.

EDIT:

Technically Dave Ragone is still listed as the Bears’ QB coach, but he could either be let go or reassigned within the organization.

There have been no changes made to the defensive staff after they announced that defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is returning.

EDIT:

Bears to retain Glenn Pires, Roy Anderson on defensive staff