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Kliff Kingsbury is the most recent of 9 total candidates the Bears have requested to interview for their vacant offensive coordinator position.  The Bears fired former offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy, on January 10th, as well as 4 other members of their offensive staff.  Kliff Kingsbury is definitely a big name and has a resume that speaks for itself.  

Kliff currently is a Senior Offensive Analyst at USC.  Kliff was the Head Coach at Texas Tech from 2013-2018, where he had a losing reputation.  He was also the Arizona Cardinals’ Head coach from 2019-2022; there, he also had a history of poor games.  Overall, his record as a Head Coach was 63-77-1.  

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Putting his reputation as Head Coach aside, he has coached some notable quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, Johnny Manziel, Baker Mayfield, Case Keenum, and now Caleb Williams this season at USC.  Kliff is probably most recognizable for coaching Mahomes at Texas Tech, and obviously Kyler Murray with his stint for the Arizona Cardinals.

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Many believed, myself included, that Kingsbury was not qualified to be the Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals because of his record at Texas Tech—and the only reason he got the position was his connection to Kyler Murray.  Kliff recruited Murray out of high school to play at Texas Tech; however, Murray ultimately opted to commit to Texas AM, then transferred to Oklahoma where he won the Heisman.  Just like Kyler Murray landing Kliff a job in Arizona, I believe Kingsbury’s connection to Caleb Williams would land him the offensive coordinator job in Chicago, if the Bears decide to Pick Williams with the number 1 pick in April.

If the Bears do pick Williams in April, it would appear that pairing Williams with Kingsbury would make a lot of sense.  Kingsbury has already coached him for a year at USC, so Kliff knows what types of plays Caleb likes and dislikes.  Kliff also runs an air raid offense, similar to what Caleb played in at USC.  This could make his transition to the NFL fairly easy.  My concern with Kingsbury potentially being the offensive coordinator of the Bears is I don’t believe that his air raid scheme works in the NFL.  

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Kliff’s offense in the NFL was very boring and unimaginative.  He would line up Deandre Hopkins in the same spot every time.  He would refuse to put Murray under center running every play from shotgun.  When you had a player with the skills that Kyler possessed, it was disappointing to not see some plays under center, playaction from center, and movement of the pocket.  It seemed every play was a straight drop back, which is hard on your quarterback when your offensive line is poor and have a quarterback who is 5’10.  The success that was had on offense, in my opinion, was solely because of Kyler Murray and his ability to create plays off script.  Rarely were the explosive plays drawn up by Kinsbury.  I like to say that Kliff’s favorite play call was “Kyler, go make a play”.

Caleb Williams has a very similar skill set to Kyler Murray.  I have no doubt that he could run the “Caleb, go make a play” offense.  I actually think that Caleb is even better on off script plays than Kyler is.  Some of the concerns around Williams is that he often plays out of structure trying to create big explosive plays.  Playing out of structure like that is just not sustainable at the NFL level.  If Kliff cannot adapt to a modified air raid scheme, I believe he will be coaching Williams into some bad habits.  Ultimately, he would be relying on Williams off script ability to produce points.