Why the hell did the Bears hire Press Taylor?

Ben Johnson aims to reshape the Chicago Bears, and revitalize Caleb Williams — but his latest move has everyone scratching their heads. On Wednesday it was announced that Johnson was adding former Jaguars’ offensive coordinator Press Taylor to his staff, poised to serve as passing game coordinator.

It’s not often an assistant coach hiring warrants major discussion, but when it comes to Taylor this needs to be analyzed. The younger brother of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, Press has shown zero of his sibling’s ability to coach in the NFL. Chicago is now his fourth stop in the NFL, with his resume being littered with failures along the way.

The greatest credit to Taylor’s name happened during his stint with the Eagles. Beginning his career as an offensive quality control coach, Taylor made a name for himself during the Eagles’ Super Bowl win in 2016 when he was credited with devising the “Philly Special,” the pivotal play of the game in which quarterback Nick Foles broke out of formation on a trick play and scored a touchdown.

Promoted to quarterbacks coach of the Eagles in 2018, everything was downhill from there. As soon as Taylor took over the job Carson Wentz began regressing. As a result the Eagles went from 3rd in the NFL in scoring offense, to 18th.

The Eagles front office wanted Taylor fired, but was met with incredible resistance from Doug Pederson. The coach was so hellbent on keeping Taylor on his staff that he ultimately got fired from his head coaching job for sticking by him. The pair were fired after the 2020 season, and the Eagles immediately got better without Taylor being involved. Jalen Hurts completed just 52 percent of his passes under Taylor’s guidance, but lifted this to a breakout 2nd year with Nick Sirianni’s takeover.

After being fired by the Eagles, Taylor then joined Frank Reich’s staff on the 2021 Colts. Hired as a “senior offensive assistant,” Taylor didn’t have a great deal of input on the offense with Reich choosing to run the show.

The Colts were ... okay. This was the season the team desperately traded for Carson Wentz in the hopes they could recapture his Eagles’ magic, but it ultimately didn’t work. Taylor was part of a staff that saw the Colts finish 26th in the NFL in passing, and 10th in rushing — despite having Jonathan Taylor run for 1,811 yards.

In what became a theme for Press Taylor, his next job came from a former friend once more. Doug Pederson, who sacrificed his job in Philadelphia for him, became head coach of the Jaguars, and Taylor was hired to his highest-profile job: Offensive coordinator.

Tasked with getting Trevor Lawrence over the hump after the disastrous short-lived Urban Meyer era, Taylor saw immediate success with Lawrence finally getting a chance to shine. Unfortunately this didn’t last. Much like his time in Philadelphia, Lawrence began to regress in Taylor’s offense, despite the team spending more money in free agency to add weapons.

Lawrence quickly saw his completion percentage, yardage, and touchdowns drop — while his interceptions increased. The Jaguars were in the Top 10 in passing in both 2022 and 2023, but this was manufactured success. Jacksonville ran one of the most unbalanced offenses in the NFL, passing vastly more than they ran the ball.

Playcalling was a major issue through Taylor’s time in Jacksonville. The uneven balance, paired with questionable decisions turned Lawrence into a laughing stock before he was injured.

Taylor was fired once more, again along with Doug Pederson.

Even if Press Taylor is only being given a job as “passing coordinator,” still it’s a bad move. At no point in his career has Taylor proven himself to be a halfway decent NFL coach. This is especially concerning considering part of his job will be to assist with Caleb Williams’ development, and formulating ways to make the passing game easier for him.

The issue is that at every stop Taylor has made the life of his QBs more difficult. The more responsibility he’s been given, the more he struggles — and that’s a bad way to start a new Ben Johnson era in Chicago.

What the Bears’ head coach was thinking with this move is anyone’s guess.