The Chicago Bears are under no illusions. Those people in charge understand the next 3-4 weeks may well determine the next decade of football in this town. It has been several years since the Bears landed on an actual good head coach. Since Lovie Smith departed, it’s been an array of horrible mixed with mediocre. Matt Eberflus has a case for being the worst of the lot. Now, team president Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles must try to learn from that mistake and somehow find the right guy for the first time in over a decade.
Plenty of rumors have bounced back and forth around the team. Some indicate they’re looking for an offensive specialist to help Caleb Williams. Others hear they’d prefer somebody with experience who can fix the culture of losing that has permeated Halas Hall. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN shed some light on the subject during an appearance on the This Is Football podcast. From what he understands, the Bears aren’t going to pigeonhole themselves. They’re planning a thorough and extensive search.
One can understand eyeing a specific type of coach, but the right person for the job can sometimes pop up in unlikely places. Smith wasn’t the first choice for the Bears in 2004. GM Jim Finks didn’t even want Mike Ditka in 1982. It is always about getting to know every candidate possible and assessing which of them has the traits you’re looking for. A big criticism of Poles was that he only took 48 hours after getting the GM job to make a decision in 2022, opting for Eberflus. He went with his gut rather than taking time to truly evaluate his options. It appears he won’t make that mistake again.
The bigger question is whether the Chicago Bears are willing to take their time. If they plan to meet with 12-14 candidates, they can’t possibly expect to do so in the span of one or two weeks. It is almost impossible to glean any good information from a frantic pace like that. This process must be spread out over most of January and even into February if needed. Will Poles and Warren have that kind of patience? Nobody can say.
