The Chicago Bears may reportedly turn toward a familiar face for their vacant defensive coordinator position.

According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, the Bears interviewed Mike Singletary for the spot that is open because Chuck Pagano retired after the 2020 season.

Singletary has plenty of coaching experience, including when he was the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers from Week 8 in the 2008 season until he was fired after Week 16 of the 2010 campaign. He finished with an 18-22 record and did not make the playoffs.

The 62-year-old was also a linebackers coach for the Baltimore Ravens and 49ers, assistant head coach and linebackers coach for the Minnesota Vikings, and a defensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams.

Most recently, he was the head coach of the Memphis Express in the defunct Alliance of American Football.

Despite that lengthy resume, Singletary will always be connected to the Bears as a Hall of Fame linebacker who played from 1981-92. He won a Super Bowl and two Defensive Player of the Year Awards while being named to 10 Pro Bowls and eight All-Pro first teams.

Chicago was just 8-8 during the 2020 season and lost in the first round of the playoffs that it only qualified for because the NFL expanded to seven teams per conference this season, but there is a strong defensive infrastructure in place.

Playmakers such as Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks and Roquan Smith helped the Bears finish 11th in the league in yards allowed and kept them in a number of games even when their offense struggled to score.

If Singletary is hired, he will look to mold that group into a unit that can take them deeper into the playoffs, much like he did as a player during the 1985 campaign, when the Bears won Super Bowl XX.