What you need to know about new Bears defensive hire Phil Snow
What you need to know about new Bears defensive hire Phil Snow originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Bears added another coach to their defensive staff on Monday. Matt Eberflus announced that the team hired Phil Snow to be a senior defensive analyst.
“He’s a great person,” said Eberflus. “He’s very humble, he works well with others, he gives sound advice, and he’s done a good job where he’s been in terms of having good defense, for sure.”
Snow most recently worked as the Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator from 2020-2022. Last year, the Panthers defense ranked 22nd in yards allowed and 19th in points allowed. In 2021, they ranked second in yards allowed but 21st in points allowed. In 2020, the Panthers ranked 18th in both points and yards allowed. Snow ran several successful defenses at Arizona State in the mid-90s but his most recent success was working as Baylor’s defensive coordinator in 2019, when they ranked 19th in the nation in points allowed.
Eberflus first met Snow at the NFL Combine through their shared mentor Rod Marinelli. Eberflus worked alongside Marinelli as a fellow position coach for the Cowboys in 2013, then under Marinelli when he was the Cowboys defensive coordinator from 2014-2017. Meanwhile Snow worked under Marinelli for many years and many teams. Those stints include time together at Cal, Arizona State and with the Lions.
Snow will work at Halas Hall throughout the week, helping prepare advanced scouting notes on the Bears’ future opponents. He won’t attend games.
“He’ll be giving summaries of all the situations during the course of the week,” Eberflus said.
Snow also has familiarity with the schemes Eberflus runs, which is key for their prep work. However, Eberfus said he values that Snow has some different experiences as a coach, like using different pressure looks.
“It’s been pretty cool to talk to him,” Eberflus said.
Eberflus has worked as the Bears’ defensive coordinator in addition to all of his head coaching duties since former DC Alan Williams stepped away from the team in Week 2. Williams officially resigned as defensive coordinator on Sept. 20.
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