Bears Promote Rod Marinelli to Defensive Coordinator

After naming his old boss Mike Martz as the Bears offensive coordinator, Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears have decided to elevate Rod Marinelli from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator. The Bears interviewed candidates for the job such as former Bears assistant Perry Fuel, but some experts have been wondering lately if Smith would just give the keys to defense to Marinelli. Marinelli was hired as a defensive line coach last season by his former Tampa Bay Buccaneers colleague Lovie Smith where two served under Tony Dungy. Head coach Lovie Smith called the plays last season in which the Bears defense was ranked 17th in NFL (not terrible). The defensive line didn’t make any great leaps forward last year under Marinelli’s watch with neither starting defensive ends getting more than six and a half sacks. Marinelli is an experienced NFL coach with 14 years experience coaching in the league including three years as the Detroit Lions head coach where in 2008 the team made history by not winning a single game. One piece of drama for the 2010 season will be how Rod Marinelli and Mike Martz coexist considering that Marinelli fired Martz in 2007 from the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator position.


















