{"id":695556,"date":"2026-01-22T05:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695556\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T05:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:26:11","slug":"bears-al-harris-interviews-for-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695556\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears’ Al Harris interviews for DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 21, 2026, 10:53 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

There were some developments on Wednesday evening regarding the Washington Commanders<\/a>‘ defensive coordinator opening. First, Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who interviewed with Washington, will return to the Vikings<\/a> in 2026, unless he’s hired as a head coach elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Later on Wednesday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler revealed that the Commanders<\/a> are interviewing Bears<\/a> defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator Al Harris for their open defensive coordinator position.<\/p>\n

It is no secret that Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has been looking to get someone with more experience for the defensive coordinator position. Flores might have been Quinn’s top choice, but his return to Minnesota widens Washington’s search. Flores was looking to get a head coaching position; when that did not materialize, he returned to the Vikings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is also worth noting that Harris just interviewed with the Green Bay Packers<\/a> for their defensive coordinator position, and that Harris might like to return to where he played several seasons in the NFL.<\/p>\n

The Bears’ defense this season was known for creating takeaways, leading the NFL in 2025. Frankly, the Chicago defense itself was not even in the top half in yards surrendered (29th) or points allowed (23rd). But leading the NFL in takeaways and having QB Caleb Williams engineer 6 game-winning drives in the final quarter took the Bears to the divisional round before they lost to the Rams<\/a> last weekend.<\/p>\n

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Harris coached the Bears’ defensive backs. He and Quinn worked together in Dallas when Harris was coaching defensive backs from 2020 to 2023. Quinn departed Dallas after the 2023 season to become Washington’s head coach, while Harris remained for the 2024 season as assistant head coach & defensive backs coach. Thus, Harris has been with the Bears for only the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Harris does have considerable coaching experience, having also coached the Chiefs defensive backs from 2013-2018. He played in the NFL as a corner for the Bucs<\/a> (1997), Eagles<\/a> (1998-2002), Packers (2003-2010), and the Rams (2011). Harris could play, appearing in 194 NFL games, intercepting 21 passes for three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Harris once said he’d follow Quinn anywhere<\/a>. Quinn tried to hire him before the 2024 season, but the Cowboys blocked the move. We’ll see if a reunion is in the making this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 21, 2026, 10:53 p.m. ET There were some developments on Wednesday evening regarding the Washington Commanders‘ defensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[95878,427,7,6,95993,95994,95882,96164,96089,95976,95924,95988,95896,95888,95895,95899,95906,96191,95884,95883,96239,96006,95881,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-695556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-commanders","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcommanders","13":"tag-sstsncommanders","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagcaleb-williams","16":"tag-tagchicago-bears","17":"tag-taggreen-bay-packers","18":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","19":"tag-tagminnesota-vikings","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagphiladelphia-eagles","26":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","29":"tag-tagwashington-commanders","30":"tag-typestory","31":"tag-washington","32":"tag-washington-commanders","33":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}