{"id":696463,"date":"2026-01-22T14:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/696463\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T14:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:25:17","slug":"nfc-north-news-bears-lose-key-coach-vikings-retain-eric-bieniemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/696463\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC North news: Bears lose key coach, Vikings retain Eric Bieniemy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While things are pretty quiet in Detroit Lions coaching news after they hired Drew Petzing to be their next offensive coordinator, the rest of the NFC North is still in the midst of this coaching cycle. We\u2019ve already seen the Green Bay Packers lose their well-respected defensive coordinator, and now there is news for the other two divisional foes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Let\u2019s start with the bad news: the Minnesota Vikings have signed defensive coordinator Brian Flores to a contract extension to keep him in Minnesota for an undisclosed amount of time. Flores\u2019 contract was up with Minnesota, leading some to believe he could take a defensive coordinator job elsewhere. He even interviewed for the Washington Commanders\u2019 defensive coordinator job last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, there is still a chance the Vikings lose him. Despite signing a new deal with the Vikings, Flores could still leave for a head coaching vacancy. Earlier this week, Flores completed an in-person interview for the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 head coaching position, and last week he interviewed for the Baltimore Ravens\u2019 job. Some are skeptical of Flores\u2019 chances to land a head coaching job due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/nfl-takes-brian-flores-case-to-supreme-court-on-issue-of-arbitration\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his ongoing lawsuit against the NFL<\/a>, but we shall see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Under Flores, the Vikings defense has finished seventh, fifth, and 13th in points allowed. Against the Lions this year, Flores\u2019 defense held Detroit to just 24 and 10 points in their two matchups, including a season-low 231 yards of offense in their Week 17 matchup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for the Chicago Bears, they lost Eric Bieniemy, who left to reunite with the Kansas City Chiefs as their next offensive coordinator. Bieniemy served as the Bears\u2019 running backs coach this year, and he helped produce one of the best rushing attacks in the league in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Chicago finished third in the NFL in rushing yards (144.5 per game) and third in yards per carry (4.9). How much credit goes to Bieniemy vs. new head coach Ben Johnson is up for debate, but it\u2019s hard to ignore the improvement from D\u2019Andre Swift and strong rookie season for Kyle Monangai. Swift finished with a career-high 1,087 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns, while Monangai added his own 783 rushing yards at an impressive 4.6 yards per carry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While things are pretty quiet in Detroit Lions coaching news after they hired Drew Petzing to be their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,37982,2506,7,147,53161,6,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-696463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroit-lions-coaching-news-rumors","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-nfc-north-news-and-notes","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115939215038426809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696463","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=696463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}