MOBILE, Ala. — New Bears quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph will be a key part of one of the franchise’s biggest decisions in recent history: Will the team bet on Justin Fields to rise toward the top of the NFL, or draft his replacement with the No. 1 pick in the draft?
Joseph’s going to help them answer that question, but hasn’t gotten started on it yet in his first few days on the job.
“I don’t even know where my office is at yet in the building,” Joseph said. “I haven’t set foot to really think about anything outside of getting transitioned over there and coming down here. Everything happened pretty fast for me.”
The Bears hired Joseph on Friday, and he is the quarterbacks coach for the American Team at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., this week. None of the four quarterbacks he’s working with are expected to be high draft picks.
While the Bears are always looking for gems in the late rounds or as undrafted free agents, the more important work they need Joseph to do is scout top talent like USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels.
They also need him to study Fields’ film for input on his trajectory, and Joseph said Tuesday he’s mostly unfamiliar with him since he was the Seahawks’ assistant wide receivers coach the year Fields was in the draft. He called Fields, Tyson Bagent and Nathan Peterman
Bears general manager Ryan Poles went into the offseason planning to keep interviews open-ended with prospective coaches when it came to their plans at quarterback because he believed it was “really important to see the versatility and the adaptability in their teaching and the way they implement a plan, a scheme and adjust.”
That was how they approached offensive coordinator interviews, and eventually hired former Seahawks coordinator Shane Waldron. Joseph worked under Waldron in Seattle the last three seasons. When Joseph spent the day at Halas Hall for interviews, the conversations centered on him rather than on the potential options at quarterback.
“Throughout the interview process, it’s just about me and about my coaching technique, my fundamentals,” Joseph said. “It’s about showing who I am and how I can help this team be victorious and win some ballgames.”
Joseph, 50, starred at quarterback at East Tennessee State in the 1990s, then tried to make it as a wide receiver with the Bengals and later a safety for the Seahawks. He also had a decorated career as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League before getting his start in coaching as a training camp intern with the Saints in 2014.
He has coached running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks, and that diverse background coupled with his time on defense expanded his view of how to coach quarterbacks.
“It helps me tremendously because of playing the safety position, so when I went back to playing quarterback, I see it from a defensive mentality,” he said. “So [I’m] able to help guys understand the game, not just from the offensive side but also from the defensive side and help them with where to put their eyes. That’s what it did for me as a player.”