Chris Jones, a Grey Cup-winning head coach in the Canadian Football League, has joined Bill Belichick's North Carolina staff, according to 3Down Nation, who covers the CFL.
The site reports that Jones, who is already at work for the Tar Heels, will be a defensive assistant. He has a connection to the staff through Freddie Kitchens, expected to be UNC's offensive coordinator, after spending the 2019 season on Kitchens's Cleveland Browns staff.
Though the majority of Jones's career has been spent north of the border, he is a Tennessee native who coached at Tennessee Tech, Alabama and UT-Martin, and was recently a high school coach in the Volunteer State.
After spending 1999-01 as the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee Tech, Jones took the D-line job for the Montreal Alouettes in 2002. He was the club's defensive coordinator a year later, putting him on the path to eventually become the Edmonton Eskimos head coach in 2014.
Jones would eventually spend 10-plus seasons as a CFL head coach and general manager, leading the Eskimos to the 2015 Grey Cup. Jones was the Edmonton Elks' -- same team, new name -- head coach and GM from 2022 to the beginning of the 2024 season, when he was dismissed from both jobs after the club's 0-5 start, and finished the year as a consultant for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Belichick's staff is coming together, and it's an eclectic mix of familiar names in the Belichick Cinematic Universe and names from across the world of football. News broke earlier Wednesday that IMG Academy head coach Billy Miller is expected to join the staff, likely to coach special teams.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.