Report: Bears hire Jennifer King as an offensive assistant coach

The Bears still haven’t officially announced the entire 2024 coaching staff, but here’s another report about a new hire.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was reported by the NFL Network’s Bridget Condon that the Chicago Bears were hiring Jennifer King as an offensive assistant who will work with the running backs. The 39-year-old King is the first woman hired as a coach in Bears’ history.

Before coaching football, King spent 13 years coaching college basketball, including two seasons as head coach of North Carolina’s Johnson & Wales University, where she was named the 2018 USCAA Women’s Division II Coach of the Year.

King began her football coaching career as an intern in 2018 with head coach Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers, where she worked with the wide receivers. In 2019, she interned there while working with the running backs. In 2018 and 2019, she was also the assistant wide receiver and special teams coach of the Arizona Hotshots of the now-defunct AAF. She also spent the 2019 collegiate season as an offensive assistant for Dartmouth.

In 2020, she was back in the NFL as an intern with Washington and head coach Rivera. Then, in 2021, she was hired as their assistant running backs coach, a position she remained in through the 2023 season.

Chicago hasn’t officially announced all the new hires on their 2024 coaching staff yet, but here is what the reports have.

*Offensive coordinator – Shane Waldron

*Quarterbacks coach – Kerry Joseph

Wide receivers coach – Chris Beatty

Passing Game Coordinator – Thomas Brown

Running backs coach – Chad Morton

Assistant offensive line coach – Jason Houghtaling

Offensive assistant (running backs) – Jennifer King

*Defensive coordinator – Eric Washington

* Denotes an announced hire by the team