Chicago Bears 🐻⬇️

Kevin Koch enters his fifth season with the Bears and second as Assistant Linebackers Coach in 2026.

Kevin Koch enters his fifth season with the Bears and second as Assistant Linebackers Coach in 2026.

Prior to being elevated to Assistant Linebackers Coach in 2025, Koch spent two seasons with Chicago in a Defensive Quality Control capacity, after initially joining the Bears as a Coaching Assistant in 2023.

Last season, Koch helped lead a linebacker room that featured LB Tremaine Edmunds, who led the team with 112 tackles, becoming the fifth player to have 100+ tackles in each of his first eight NFL seasons since the stat began being tracked in 1987. Edmunds also contributed a career-high tying four interceptions, the third most by a linebacker in the NFL in 2025 and tied for the eight-most among all players. The linebacker room also featured veteran LB T.J. Edwards, and Week 14 NFC Defensive Player of the Week, LB D'Marco Jackson, both of whom each had an interception in the regular season, contributing to the Bears league-leading tally of 23 interceptions. Koch also has aided in the development of LB Noah Sewell over the past two seasons. In 2025, Sewell logged a forced fumble, adding to the Bears league-leading 33 total takeaways.

In 2024, Koch's work with the defense helped the Bears register five red-zone takeaways, tied for third-most by any team in the NFL. Chicago also finished the season ranking third in the NFL in opponent red-zone touchdown percentage (46.0). Primarily working with the linebackers, Koch aided a unit that featured LB Tremaine Edmunds and LB T.J. Edwards each logging over 100 total tackles, becoming one of just four pairs of duos to record at least 100 tackles on the same team each of the last two seasons (IND: Franklin/Speed, CIN: Pratt/Wilson, JAX: Lloyd/Oluokun). With Koch's assistance, Edmunds ranks No. 10 in the NFL in total tackles since 2018, as Edwards owns the second-most tackles by any NFC defender since the start of the 2023 season (282).

In 2023, his first year as a Defensive Quality Control, Koch aided a Bears defense that limited the opposition to an average of just 86.4 rushing yards per game, the No. 1 rushing defense in the NFL, and collected the most interceptions in the league (22). Edwards finished 2023 with a career-high 153 total tackles (90 solo), as he led or shared the lead in tackles for the Bears in 11 games, as Edmunds totaled four interceptions to go along with his 113 total tackles (69 solo). Developing the entire linebacker room, rookie LB Noah Sewell would appear in 13 games for the Bears.

Prior to elevating to Defensive Quality Control, Koch spent his first season with the Bears as a Coaching Assistant in 2022, serving as an integral part of the coaching staff's day-to-day operation and weekly game preparations.

Koch joined the Bears after five years at Northwestern University (2017-21). After spending his first two seasons as a Graduate Assistant, was promoted to Defensive Quality Control Analyst for his final three years with the Wildcats. Over his five seasons at Northwestern, the Wildcats reached the Big Ten Conference Championship Game twice (2018, '20) and earned three bowl victories. In his first season, Northwestern posted a 10-3 record with a victory in the Music City Bowl, before helping the Wildcats win the Big Ten West in 2018, adding a win in the Holiday Bowl to close out his second season with the program.

Before his tenure at Northwestern, Koch spent one season at Benedictine (Ill.) University (2016), serving as Special Teams Coordinator, while also coaching the running backs and tight ends. Koch also oversaw Benedictine's recruiting efforts in the Chicagoland area.

Koch entered the coaching ranks in 2012 as a Graduate Assistant at Robert Morris University (Ill.), before returning to his alma mater, Minnesota State University Moorhead, in 2014, spending two seasons working with the defensive backs and special teams units.

A native of Elmhurst, Ill., Koch earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Minnesota State University Moorhead, before achieving a master's in management of sports administration from Robert Morris University (Ill.), then later gaining a second master's degree from Northwestern University in 2019.

Koch and his wife, Kara, have two children, daughter Noelle and son Cameron.