MOBILE, Ala. — A week after accepting the Bears’ head coaching job, Matt Eberflus found someone to mentor Justin Fields as his position coach. Vikings assistant Andrew Janocko is expected to be named the team’s new quarterbacks coach, a source confirmed Thursday.
Janocko, who turns 34 in April, connects to the Bears through new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Getsy was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 2010 when Janocko was a backup quarterback as a redshirt junior. Both played high school football in Pennsylvania and attended Pitt, though Getsy transferred to Akron for his final two seasons.
Janocko spent last season as the Vikings’ quarterbacks coach; Kirk Cousins won half his 16 starts, completed two-thirds of his passes and threw 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions. While Cousins might be an uninspiring case study for Bears fans, consider this: he has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in six of the last seven years. The Bears have never had a quarterback eclipse Erik Kramer’s 3,838 from 1995.
Janocko — whose name is pronounced juh-NO-co — has spent most of his NFL career coaching something other than quarterbacks. Since joining the Vikings in 2015, he served as an offensive quality control coach, assistant offensive line coach and, in 2020, receivers coach. In 2018, he and former Bears tight ends coach Clancy Barone teamed up as the Vikings’ co-offensive line coaches after Tony Sparano died days before the start of training camp.
Like the Bears, the Vikings are replacing both their coach and general manager. They named Kwesi Adofo-Mensah their GM last week. Reports on Wednesday said they’ll hire Rams quarterbacks coach Kevin O’Connell as head coach after the Super Bowl.
Janocko was a grad assistant at Rutgers in 2011 and spent the next two years as a Buccaneers offensive assistant after Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano took the NFL job. He spent 2014 as the quarterbacks coach at Div. II Mercyhurst.
The Bears’ offensive coaching staff is almost complete. Eberflus has already hired Getsy, Janocko, offensive line coach Chris Morgan and, per NFL Network, receivers coach/pass game coordinator Tyke Tolbert.
