Hightower spent the last five seasons as the special teams coordinator for the 49ers.
Ten days after Bears head coach Matt Eberflus was hired, he landed his third and final coordinator Sunday: special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.
Hightower, 41, spent the last five seasons as the special teams coordinator for the 49ers, where Robbie Gould continued his dominance as one of the nation’s most consistent placekickers. More notably, the 49ers beat the Packers in second round of the NFC playoffs on the backs of their special teamers, who blocked a punt for a touchdown and blocked a field goal at the end of the first half.
Hightower joined the 49ers after serving one year as the Bears’ assistant special teams coach under Jeff Rodgers in 2016.
He’ll have a hard act to follow after former Bears special teams boss Chris Tabor signed with the Panthers. The 49ers ranked No. 25 in Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings, the most well-respected measure in the sport, in 2021. The Bears, by contrast, were No. 9. Football Outsiders ranked the 49ers No. 26 and the Bears No. 7.
Hightower played football at Texas alongside Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers’ head coach. He began his NFL career as a Texans coaching assistant in 2006 and was promoted to special teams assistant in 2008. He was the receivers coach at the University of Minnesota in 2009, and the assistant special teams coach in Washington, D.C., from 2010-13.
He handled offensive quality control for the 2014 Browns and was a special teams assistant for the 2015 49ers before joining the Bears.