It can be a scary thing when a team puts an untried coach in a prominent position for the first time. That goes not only for head coaches but coordinators as well. Thus far Matt Nagy has leaned on experienced coordinators during his tenure with the Chicago Bears. Vic Fangio, Chuck Pagano, Mark Helfrich, and Bill Lazor all took over their coordinator jobs with prior experience. Sean Desai represents his first true departure from that model.
The 38-year old joined the staff in 2013 and spent the next few years as a quality control coach. Then in 2019, he was promoted to run the safety position. Nobody gave him much thought after Pagano retired as a viable choice for defensive coordinator. That is until a number of former players insisted the Bears give him an honest look. After a careful search, Nagy reached his decision. Desai would run the defense moving forward.
A bold move in every sense.
Not only was the coach young by most standards. He only had two years of experience as a position coach too. It would be asking a lot of him to take over a largely veteran group of players who’d spent the past few years under longtime staples like Fangio and Pagano. Yet it appears people aren’t too worried about that. Early returns inside the organization are positive. Desai has a number of fans already. Some old and some new. Outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey has been a fan for years now according to Larry Mayer of ChicagoBears.com.
“Sharing an office with Sean, it was good for me because he was my sounding board to ask a question and just looking over the top of the cubicle, basically. The way he could articulate certain things in the scheme, you could tell he had taken a lot of mental reps and put the time in. He was able to precisely explain a technique that maybe I wasn’t familiar with.”
The buzzword that keeps coming up with Desai is “organized.” Everybody who talks about him keeps pointing this out. He is always well-prepared. New defensive line coach Chris Rumph was unfamiliar with him before arriving in Chicago. It didn’t take him long to reach the same conclusions. Desai has a plan for everything. Not only that but has the ability to communicate what he wants without confusing the people around him.
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“He’s energetic, he knows what he wants, he has a plan,” said Bears first-year defensive line coach Chris Rumph Sr. “The first thing you notice is his organization, his ability to communicate and also his willingness to listen to different ideas and to really think things through.”
Sean Desai doesn’t seem like a man overwhelmed by his job
That comes from his aggressiveness in asking questions of his more experienced colleagues for so many years. Desai never stopped seeking information. Doing everything in his power to educate himself. Why do this drill? Why call this play in that situation? How is motivation different from player to player? All of this learning helped him prepare for the eventual opportunity he finally saw back in January when the coordinator job opened.
It says a lot that Nagy interviewed so many other options including more experienced ones yet chose to go with Sean Desai. That is quite a vote of confidence. Especially for a head coach who many believe is on the hot seat entering 2021. Desai has no intentions of wasting this shot. He has a plan for the defense. One that will see them be all about speed, discipline, and physicality. He wants this group to set the tone every week.
The man certainly knows his audience.
It remains to be seen what he’ll get out of them. Desai inherits the defense at an awkward time. They just lost their best cornerback in Kyle Fuller his offseason. A number of their prominent players are also pushing into their 30s. Can he squeeze another standout season from them before a transition period becomes inevitable? One thing is for sure. He’ll put in all the work necessary to try.
