New head coach Jim Harbaugh has made another notable addition to the Los Angeles Chargers coaching staff.
While the staff features plenty of familiar faces from Harbaugh’s time with the Michigan Wolverines and San Francisco 49ers, Wednesday’s hiring of former Chicago Bears head coach Marc Trestman was quite a shock.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter had the news first.
Chargers hired former Bears HC Marc Trestman as a Senior Offensive Assistant Coach. pic.twitter.com/pqbArVK41w
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 14, 2024
Trestman has had a fascinating career. After playing quarterback for the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the late 70s, his coaching career began with a stint with the Miami Hurricanes lasting from 1981-84.
Trestman’s first jump to the NFL came in 1985, returning to his native Minnesota as a running backs coach for the Vikings, where he spent two seasons before spending 1987 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a quarterbacks coach. His first NFL offensive coordinator job came in 1988 with the Cleveland Browns. He was fired after the 1990 season and left football until 1995 when he was hired as the offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers.
Trestman quickly became known as a quarterback guru, with the most notable example coming in 2002 when Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon won NFL MVP en route to a loss in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Continuing to hop from offensive coaching position to offensive coaching position, Trestman’s first opportunity as a head coach came with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes where he would lead the team to a pair of Grey Cup championships.
After firing longtime coach Lovie Smith, the Chicago Bears became the NFL team finally willing to take a chance on Trestman as head coach. Chicago’s offense thrived under Trestman but the defense struggled and after just two seasons in which he went 13-19, he was fired by the Bears.
After two years as the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, Trestman returned to the CFL and won another Grey Cup, this time with the Toronto Argonauts. In 2020 he was named the head coach of the XFL’s Tampa Bay Vipers, and once the league folded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trestman disappeared from the public eye until being hired by the Chargers Wednesday.
