New Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus finalizes staff, adds 3 assistants

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- New Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus finalized his staff by hiring three more assistants Friday.

The Bears added former NFL linebacker Carlos Polk as assistant special teams coach, assistant defensive line coach Justin Hinds and coaching assistant Kevin Koch.

Polk, a Rockford, Illinois, native, had a similar job with Jacksonville this past season. He has 11 years of NFL coaching experience and 12 overall. A linebacker, Polk played seven seasons for San Diego (2001-07) and Dallas (2008) after starring at Nebraska.

Hinds was defensive coordinator at Western Carolina in 2021 after spending the previous two years as Central Michigan's defensive line coach.

Koch spent the past five seasons on Pat Fitzgerald's staff at Northwestern as a defensive graduate assistant and then a defensive quality control analyst. A product of suburban Elmhurst, Illinois, he played quarterback at College of DuPage and at Minnesota State Moorhead.

The Bears fired general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy following a 6-11 season and replaced them with longtime Kansas City Chiefs executive Ryan Poles and Eberflus, who's leading an NFL team for the first time after spending the past four years as Indianapolis' defensive coordinator.