MOBILE, Ala. — Kerry Joseph doesn’t have any ideas but on the Chicago Bears’ largest offseason resolution, the one which holds the important thing to the NFL draft.
The staff’s new quarterbacks coach, employed Friday, doesn’t even know the place his workplace is at Halas Hall. He has been on a whirlwind tour for the reason that season ended, free to hunt a brand new job after the Seattle Seahawks compelled out coach Pete Carroll.
Joseph, the assistant quarterbacks coach for the Seahawks the final two seasons, spent someday in Lake Forest interviewing for the Bears job. In between, he was scrambling to get to Mobile, the place he’s serving as quarterbacks coach of the American staff within the Senior Bowl.
Somehow alongside the way in which, Joseph bought connected with Bears gear and was carrying a team-issued navy hat, navy shorts and grey sweatshirt at observe Tuesday at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the South Alabama campus.
He doesn’t have preliminary ideas on Justin Fields. Joseph was the assistant large receivers coach in Seattle in 2021, when the Bears drafted Fields. He has but to dig in on this 12 months’s draft, through which the Bears maintain the primary and ninth picks and are in place to pick out a brand new quarterback.
“I was getting transitioned to coming out here,” the 50-year-old Joseph mentioned.
It’s the primary time he has been an NFL place coach — above the assistant place coach degree. The connection is straightforward to make. He labored with new Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who got here from the Seahawks. The Bears additionally interviewed Seahawks quarterbacks coach Greg Olson for the offensive coordinator job.
The final first-time quarterbacks coach the Bears employed was Shane Day in 2010 based mostly on his expertise working with then-offensive coordinator Mike Martz in San Francisco. Since Day, the Bears have rolled by way of Jeremy Bates, Matt Cavanaugh, Dowell Loggains, Dave Ragone, John DeFilippo and most just lately Andrew Janocko.
It could be overly dramatic to say that is a very powerful offseason for a Bears quarterbacks coach. There has been urgency to get the place proper for the longest time. It simply so occurs they personal the No. 1 draft decide as they put together to totally look at a gifted group of passers, together with USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye (who was a spectator at observe Tuesday), LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.
Joseph, who was chargeable for red-zone preparation with the Seahawks, had a hand in serving to revive Geno Smith’s profession in Seattle as Smith threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2022. Joseph’s data of Waldron’s system will likely be vital whether or not the Bears draft a quarterback or not.
“When you think about Shane and what we were able to do with the (Seahawks) offense, I think quarterback play is about having confidence,” Joseph mentioned. “Quarterback play is nearly being aggressive. It’s about being sensible, being reliable, having a superb IQ of the sport, being passionate.
“When you think about traits, when you talk about quarterback play and when you talk about Shane’s mentality, it’s just about being connected to the play caller, being connected to the offense. There are some things you’ve got to have and you’ve got to bring to it.”
Joseph was a quarterback at McNeese State and had a 42-11 document as a four-year starter, serving to the Cowboys to 2 Southland Conference titles. He hung out with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 as an undrafted free agent earlier than taking part in in NFL Europe. He tried to make the Washington Redskins as a slot again after which performed security for the Seahawks from 1998 to 2001, showing in 56 video games with 14 begins.
He returned to quarterback within the Canadian Football League in 2003, profitable a Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2007, when he was named the league’s most excellent participant. After retiring following the 2014 season, he bought into teaching on the faculty degree with stops at his alma mater and Southeastern Louisiana earlier than becoming a member of the Seahawks as an offensive assistant in 2020.
The numerous background — having performed protection within the NFL — provides him a unique perspective to show offensive soccer.
“It helps me tremendously,” Joseph mentioned, “as a result of taking part in the security place, taking part in that dime (place), taking part in down within the field helped me perceive how defenses assault the offense, how guys match. So now that I’ve gone again to quarterback, I see it from a defensive mentality.
“Being able to help guys to understand the game, not just from the offensive side but from the defensive side, kind of helped (with) where to put their eyes. That’s what it did for me as a player, and I try to teach it that way with a defensive mentality.”
Joseph will be taught the place his workplace is quickly, after which he can hit the bottom working because the Bears put together for the draft and set up a brand new offense — fairly probably with a brand new quarterback. As far as his philosophy on creating a younger quarterback, he leaned into some primary tenets.
“I use three things: accountability, responsibility, communication,” Joseph mentioned. “It’s about belief, believing and having confidence in one another. A quarterbacks coach and a quarterback, you’ve bought to have these three issues.
“Then, hey, it’s about the fundamentals. It’s about developing the fundamentals, developing the mentality to be a good leader. To be a winner. Just willing to compete. There are so many things that I have in my philosophy as a person that I take into the coaching world and into the quarterback room to help develop a group of guys.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com