Former Rams assistant has rapid ascent to Bears head coach

In short order, Thomas Brown went from passing game coordinator to head coach

Sean McVay’s coaching tree got an unexpected new branch: Thomas Brown.

Just a month ago, Brown was the Bears passing game coordinator until Chicago fired Shane Waldron and promoted Brown to offensive coordinator. Just 17 days later, Thomas Brown is now the head coach of the Chicago Bears.

That’s quite the ascent.

In 2019, Thomas Brown was a running backs coach at South Carolina and then he was hired by McVay to do the same job with the L.A. Rams in 2020. Brown added the “assistant head coach” title to his resume in 2021 and then was hired by Frank Reich to be the Panthers offensive coordinator in 2023.

Coincidentally — or not — the Panthers drafted quarterback Bryce Young first overall and then ultimately fired Frank Reich in the middle of his first year as the head coach.

Just a year later, the Bears have Caleb Williams, the number one pick in the draft, and Chicago fired Matt Eberflus in the middle of the season; the first time in Bears history that they’ve done that.

Brown has had “promotions” in each of the past two seasons (Carolina gave him play calling duties in the middle of the season) and now just two years after being merely a tight ends coach for L.A., he’s the interim head coach of the BEARS.

This now makes five current head coaches who worked for McVay:

• Zac Taylor, Bengals
• Matt LaFleur, Packers
• Raheem Morris, Falcons
• Kevin O’Connell, Vikings
• Brown, Bears