How Declan Doyle plans to help Ben Johnson run Bears offense
Declan Doyle has largely spent his NFL coaching career working under a head coach who called offensive plays.
That was always the case while working under mentor Sean Payton, with his lone season under then-head coach Dennis Allen as the exception. Payton always had a trusted offensive coordinator at his side to help game plan, study film and set the play caller up for success.
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Pete Carmichael was that guy when Doyle was in New Orleans. Joe Lombari was the OC in Denver.
Doyle believes he had two great examples of how to fill the role he now occupies for head coach Ben Johnson in Chicago.
“Those two guys are people I look up to a lot,” Doyle said on Thursday in a virtual press conference. “They’ve had huge impacts on my life, Joe and Pete, and I was actually talking to Ben about that during the interview. Basically, five of my six years in the NFL, there’s been this position that was Pete and Joe.
“(You need) high levels of communication from that position, the ability to utilize all the resources within the staff and give very direct, not only messaging but direction to what we’re trying to accomplish. The biggest thing is you’re on the same page as the play caller. Me and Ben are gonna have to spend a ton of time together diving into film. I’m really excited to be able to go do that. And make sure I see the game the same way he sees it, to be able to orchestrate it and set the table for him and really make sure we’re doing it the way he wants to do it.”
Doyle will be part of Johnson’s effort to tailor his system to quarterback Caleb Williams and his Bears players, an endeavor that will require significant time this offseason. Johnson’s constantly tweaking and refining plays to exploit matchups against specific opponents. That means Doyle must be thorough in his in-season prep and imaginative when presenting Johnson with options.
“My job is really gonna be to organize and detail the game plan initially, utilizing our staff,” Doyle said. “Everybody will have different assignments, how we’re gonna build this thing schematically as we attack a defense. Basically, I have to do that work that he’s not gonna have time to do, and he’s going to have to be able to trust me that I’m gonna give him the correct information he needs as a decision maker. And really, throughout the week, streamlining the teaching progression to the players, making sure that everything is built around them.”