SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Former Bears coach Thomas Brown emerged from the wreckage of the Matt Eberflus era with a spot on one of the top coaching staffs in the NFL and a trip to the Super Bowl.
Brown was with the Bears in 2024 and went from passing-game coordinator to interim offensive coordinator to interim head coach when Eberflus was fired and was bypassed in favor of Ben Johnson last year. He landed with the Patriots on new coach Mike Vrabel’s staff as tight ends coach and passing-game coordinator will coach in Super Bowl LX against the Seahawks on Sunday.
“It’s been great,” Brown told the Sun-Times. “I had the chance to go through the interview process last year with a few different teams. I didn’t know Vrabes at all, but I’d heard great things about him from coaches and players that had been around him, and through the interview process we hit it off.”
Brown got a head-coaching interview with the Bears — he also has been a candidate for that job for several other teams over the last few years, and the Cardinals requested an interview this year — but Johnson was the favorite from start to finish.
When Vrabel, who also interviewed with the Bears, took the Patriots job and hired longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Brown got a chance to work with a much more solid staff and in a more functional situation than with the Bears.
“I wanted to get back to a place that was built on the right principles,” said Brown, who was with the ever-stumbling Panthers before the Bears hired him. “Vrabes does a really good job of building the culture and being about the right stuff, and I’m excited to be part of this process.”
Brown, 39, is in his second Super Bowl as a coach after winning one under Sean McVay as assistant head coach and running backs coach four years ago.
