Bears interested in Eagles’ Duce Staley

Duce Staley has been an Eagles assistant for 10 seasons, but the franchise’s longtime running backs coach has landed on the Bears’ radar.

The Bears are interested in the former NFL starter-turned-head coach candidate, Adam Jahns of The Athletic tweets. While Staley arrived in Philly before Doug Pederson, he worked with Matt Nagy‘s former Chiefs co-worker for five seasons.

The Eagles will likely bring in a host of new assistants after hiring Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni as their Pederson replacement. Staley was on the radar for the job Sirianni landed but did not seem to gain much traction during Philadelphia’s search. He was also passed over for Philly’s OC position when the team promoted Mike Groh in 2018.

Nagy has seen two of his offensive assistants — QBs coach Dave Ragone and running backs coach Charles London — defect to the Falcons this week. London will be Atlanta’s new QBs coach, working under new Falcons OC Ragone. Nagy will need to replace these staffers, and Staley has extensive experience as an offensive staffer.

Philadelphia’s RBs coach since 2013, Staley began his career at the quality control level two years prior. He worked under Pederson, Chip Kelly and Andy Reid. The Eagles tabbed him as their acting head coach during Pederson’s bout with COVID-19 last summer, but with Sirianni coming in, it is unclear if Staley remains in the Eagles’ plans or if he would want to continue working as a position coach with another new Eagles HC.