Thomas

Brown

Brown spent the 2025 season as the Patriots’ passing game coordinator and helped build a thriving offense around MVP candidate Drake Maye. The 39-year-old was an interim head coach for the Bears in 2024 and has had multiple roles with Sean McVay and the Rams from 2020-2022. Brown is now back on the head coaching radar, with Arizona first to come calling with an interview request.

The Bears gave Brown two in-season promotions after hiring him as their pass game coordinator in 2024. He was first elevated to offensive coordinator before eventually taking over as the team’s interim head coach. He served as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator in 2023 after coaching in multiple roles under head coach Sean McVay with the Rams from 2020-2022. Per Wolfe, Brown has helped the Patriots incorporate pre-snap motion and tight end-usage concepts learned under McVay. Per Wolfe, “he is ready to run his own ship.”

Brown will also serve as the Patriots’ pass-game coordinator. The past year has been a busy one for Brown, who joined the Bears last season as their passing game coordinator. He was then promoted to offensive coordinator following the firing of Shane Waldron and took over for five games as their interim head coach after Matt Eberflus was fired. Brown, 38, is a widely respected coach who interviewed for the Bears’ head coaching vacancy this offseason and also met with the Patriots and Seahawks regarding their OC jobs. His time with the Patriots could be short-lived as he continues to look like a coach in high demand for other roles.

Brown’s departure from Chicago felt inevitable after the team hired Lions’ OC Ben Johnson as its next head coach earlier this week. Brown made the leap from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator to interim head coach in his lone season with the Bears. He had a chance to interview for the team’s head coaching vacancy earlier this offseason, but with a new regime set to come in, the likelihood of him being retained was low. Brown also interviewed with the Patriots and Seahawks for offensive coordinator vacancies. While Josh McDaniels has since claimed the Patriots’ job, the Seahawks have not named a replacement for former OC Ryan Grubb. Whether it’s with these teams or somewhere else, Brown feels like a lock to have a coaching role somewhere in 2025.

The meeting reportedly took place on Tuesday but impressively remained under wraps until Friday evening, perhaps a sign of things to come with new no-nonsense head coach Mike Vrabel at the helm. Brown worked for the Panthers in 2023 and the Bears in 2024, receiving three in-season promotions of sorts during that span. Brown was given play-calling duties for three games in the Panthers’ failed 2-15 season as team leadership searched for answers. Brown then began the 2024 season as the Bears’ passing game coordinator before rising to offensive coordinator and eventually the interim head coaching position. Studying under Vrabel for a season or two could give Brown the mentoring he needs to officially make the leap into the NFL’s head coaching ranks once and for all.

According to Pelissero, Brown “impressed team brass with how he handled a challenging situation.” Brown made the leap from passing game coordinator to interim head coach in less than a month. Brown replaced Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator on November 12th, and was named interim head coach on November 29th following the dismissal of Matt Eberflus. Brown went 1-4 in his brief tenure as head coach, but he’ll get a chance to lay out his vision for the team and how he can right the ship with his own staff and people in place. Brown is one of several candidates being interviewed by the Bears, who hope to find the best candidate to get Caleb Williams and the team on track after a trying 2024.

Brown was hired by the Bears as their passing game coordinator in 2024 and was promoted to offensive coordinator after the team fired Shane Waldron. A few weeks later, Brown was promoted to interim head coach after the firing of Matt Eberflus, where he remained for the final five games of the season. Brown still has a chance to land the Bears’ head coaching job, but the team is allowing him to interview with other teams while they interview other candidates of their own. Brown has held NFL jobs since 2020, and also spent one season as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator in 2023.

Interim coach Thomas Brown will also be considered and interviewed. The smoke tying Johnson to Chicago has already come on heavy after Matt Eberflus’ firing, with Adam Schefter reporting a belief that Johnson has interest in working with Caleb Williams. Kingsbury would be a more contentious pick as his passing offense has mostly backslid over the past month, but he does have experience developing good young quarterbacks.

Brown knows how to climb the corporate ladder. Just 17 days after being named as the Bears’ interim offensive coordinator following the firing of Shane Waldron, Brown is now poised to take over as the Bears’ interim head coach with Matt Eberflus now gone. In three games as the Bears offensive coordinator, Brown head the team averaging 22.0 points per game and 363.3 yards per game — both totals are above the team’s average for the season. He’ll now have five weeks to show what he can do as a head coach, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bears fully gut the operation and rebuild its staff from the ground up.

Carolina’s offensive coordinator under Bryce Young’s “development” in 2023 now falls into the Caleb Williams gig. Brown was a Sean McVay disciple and holds more background as a running backs coach than as a playcaller. On the optimistic side, it’s hard to argue that Young was failed as yet another coaching staff fails to make much of him, while he and Frank Reich took turns calling plays. Brown was a fairly hot ticket last offseason as he interviewed for the Titans head coaching job, the Steelers offensive coordinator gig, and the Bears offensive coordinator opening before accepting a lower position on the staff in favor of Waldron. Elevated into yet another bad situation, Brown certainly is fighting the toughest battles an offensive coordinator can at the NFL level so far.