The most likely coordinator candidate to potentially remain as a holdover on new Chicago Bears coach Matt Ebeflus’ staff is departing.

Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor has agreed to a three-year contract with the Carolina Panthers, meaning the Bears will have to adjust to continue the success they have enjoyed the last four seasons.

Tabor’s unit ranked seventh in Football Outsiders’ 2021 rankings and ninth in the longtime system devised by Rick Gosselin. For the fourth straight year, Tabor’s unit produced a Pro Bowl player as returner Jakeem Grant was selected to the NFC team. He’s the third returner to be named to the Pro Bowl following Cordarrelle Patterson and Tarik Cohen.

The Bears improved on special teams this season even though they lost Patterson in free agency to the Atlanta Falcons. He was the league’s best kickoff returner and one of the NFL’s best gunners.

The Bears also found consistency in the kicking department after signing Cairo Santos. He made 56 of 62 (90.3%) field-goals attempts the last two seasons and set a franchise record in 2020 when he made 93.8% (30-for-32) of his field-goal attempts.

Tabor was the Cleveland Browns special teams coordinator for seven seasons after working as an assistant special teams coach under Dave Toub from 2008-10. While Tabor’s tenure with the Browns spanned multiple head coaches, he wasn’t the top choice for Eberflus.

League sources indicate Eberflus hopes to hire Rich Bisaccia, who finished this season as the interim coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Bisaccia has been special teams coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys, with whom he was on the same staff as Eberflus.