(670 The Score) New Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle never imagined his biggest professional break to date would come together like this.
On Tuesday, head coach Ben Johnson and the Bears hired Doyle as their new offensive coordinator. Doyle hadn't envisioned becoming an NFL offensive coordinator at 28 years old or filling a pivotal position in Chicago at such a young age.
“I wasn't sitting there looking out the front of the car looking at the next thing,” Doyle said.
Doyle's rise through the coaching ranks has been rapid. After three years as a student assistant at Iowa, he was hired by then-Saints coach Sean Payton as an offensive assistant in New Orleans in 2019.
Doyle was cutting his teeth through long hours and lesser pay, hoping to work his way up the coaching ranks. After Doyle spent four seasons in that position with the Saints, Payton brought him to Denver in 2023 as the Broncos’ tight ends coach.
The 2024 season marked the first time that Doyle led a group of players in which each one was younger than him.
Then came a recent call from Johnson, one Doyle admitted he wasn’t expecting. It was an opportunity to interview to join Johnson in Chicago as a first-time NFL offensive coordinator. The two meshed.
“The No. 1 thing that stands out, the moment you meet him, the moment you talk to him, you sense a highly, highly intelligent person,” said new Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who worked with Doyle in New Orleans. “A guy that’s been around the game, a guy that understands the game. He understands the game from a multitude of different perspectives. I just think he’s a really good, bright young coach that has a really good future in front of him.”
Johnson will call plays for the Bears’ offense, but Doyle will play an important role on the Bears’ coaching staff.
Doyle will be tasked with lightening the workload for Johnson in game-planning and helping fill the voids that come with Johnson being a play-calling head coach.
“I have been around a number of guys that have called plays in the past and I've seen the potential pitfalls that could arise as you're approaching the entire football team and you can't get to watching as much tape early in the week as you possibly could,” Johnson said. “The offensive coordinator position is going to have to be somebody that not only I trust but we'll be extremely detail oriented, organized and structured to set the table and also be willing to work late nights.”
Late nights are nothing new to Doyle, who understood early on what it would take to ascend as a coach. As Johnson sought an offensive coordinator he could rely on, Doyle stood out to him.
Doyle is willing to put forth the work. That’s what has gotten him this far – to becoming a 28-year-old NFL offensive coordinator.
“This is my passion,” Doyle said. “That's why I did it. I wanted to be able to impact young lives and change people's lives, and so, I got into it. I got to Iowa and I basically said, 'It's this or nothing,’ you know, I don't have a plan B. I'm going to put everything I have into this and I did that, and obviously it has led us here.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on X @CEmma670.