The offseason has arrived for the Chicago Bears, and with it the search for the 19th coach in franchise history.
As the list of candidates grows and interviews begin, the Tribune’s Brad Biggs sorts through it all in his weekly Bears mailbag.
Did the dynamic change at Halas Hall with Ryan Poles holding a press conference by himself instead of having him seated next to Kevin Warren and George McCaskey? — Soroush S., Batavia
The Bears switched things up for Tuesday’s media availability from what they did in early December, when Poles and Warren appeared together to discuss the decision to fire coach Matt Eberflus. That news conference was a flop for the Bears. Warren asserted himself as the man in charge — he is the president and CEO, after all — and the tone was off, too, considering the losing streak the team was mired in.
I imagine the Bears wanted to present Poles on Tuesday in a stable position of power and control over football operations when they had him speak by himself to begin the program. After Poles was done, Warren and McCaskey were available on the side for comments and questions.
Perception matters, and the organization of Tuesday’s program was better. Score it however you want. The Bears were speaking to their fans in this setting. Prospective coaches and their agents don’t put a lot into the media settings. They’re interested in what Poles, Warren and McCaskey have to say when they meet with them individually.
That’s what will shape the coaching search. Those are the words that truly matter. That’s the dynamic that is paramount for the Bears in the coming days and weeks.
Are you confident Ryan Poles will make the right decision for head coach? How would you rank the candidates for head coach? — Ro S., Oak Lawn
Poles and several others, including Chairman George McCaskey and President/CEO Kevin Warren, are charged with making the next hire. Will they get it right? History tells you the odds are stacked against them.
NFL teams turn over head coaches at a pretty high rate — on average, more than three-quarters of the league changes head coaches every four seasons. Usually one, maybe two teams wind up hitting it out of the park with their hire in each cycle. The rest are back where they started in three years, sometimes less, trying to get it right where they went wrong.
The Bears can learn from the experience of seeking a coach not long ago. Poles believes a deep understanding of where the roster is right now will benefit him this time around when he didn’t have that insight last time. A favorable salary-cap position with some extra draft capital should help as well.
I believe the Bears have a better roster than the vast majority of the teams that won six or fewer games this season. If they didn’t have poor game management, they probably would have gone 8-9. So it shouldn’t be a complete rebuild from that standpoint, but you just don’t know what direction things will head for quarterback Caleb Williams.
Here’s the other thing: While there will be countless hot takes when the hire is made, who knows if it will be the right coach? Did everyone know the Minnesota Vikings made a slam-dunk choice in 2022 when they hired Kevin O’Connell? No. He’s one of the brightest and best coaches in the league now. So it will take a couple of seasons to evaluate the Bears’ next coach and the others who land jobs in this cycle.
Can the Bears actually get it right this time when they’ve made the wrong move time and again?
Chicago Bears coaching search: Who we know are candidates for the job
“You learn from your experiences, gaining wisdom, insight into the process,” McCaskey said. “We’re very excited about the process Ryan has laid out. We’re going to start that process as soon as we finish with you folks. We’re looking forward to it.”
McCaskey is embarking on his fifth coaching hire since being elevated to his role in 2011. What makes this time around different?
“Well, the idea is to get it right,” he said. “As I said, Bears fans deserve a winner. And we’re going to do everything we can. I think with Ryan’s leadership and the process that he has outlined and with guidance from Kevin, Ryan is going to make the best decision going forward.”
Who are the top candidates? Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, Brian Flores, Aaron Glenn and Pete Carroll are intriguing to me for a variety of reasons. If Mike McCarthy severs ties in Dallas, I’d add his name to that list. David Shaw, Joe Brady, Todd Monken and Mike Kafka are also interesting. There are a lot of names to work through. Let’s see what the next few weeks bring.
I just read the list Ryan Poles has in the search for a head coach. Nowhere did I see what I think should be the main traits, people management and teaching skills. I think these skills were missing from the Bears head coach for some time and resulted in failure. So I don’t see Poles getting this hire correct when he is not looking for these two main skills. Am I missing something here? — Mike P., Aurora
I’d disagree with you here. I think the Bears very much are looking for someone who can connect with players and be a teacher. Ultimately, that’s what a coach is. He’s a teacher. I will pull out what Poles said Tuesday about the coaching search.
“We’re looking for clear vision, a developmental mindset, really good game management — and obviously a plan to develop a quarterback is going to be a key part of that as well,” he said.
Poles used the word “development” on other occasions during the roughly 26 minutes that he spoke, and I think we’re talking about “people management,” using your term, when we look at this word. Whether the Bears land a coach who can manage people and be an elite teacher remains to be seen. But that’s very much near the top of what they’re seeking, in my opinion.
So we’ve read the quotes from the players about what they want in a new coach. Do you think that those quotes are a reflection of what the culture and head coaching of Matt Eberflus wasn’t? — @cmhilvert
Everyone was seeking something different as a promising season turned bad and then bleak during a 10-game losing streak. Players want a relationship with their coaches in which they feel like they’re being put in a position to be successful and being challenged to improve. As the losses stacked up, it was hard for them to find evidence of this.
They all shared in the blame. The culture was poor. It has been poor. They’re not going to have a winning culture until they do what? Win. Until then, it’s a fancy word that gets thrown around and doesn’t mean a whole lot.
Players want to be held accountable. They want their teammates to be held accountable. And ultimately they want to be in a locker room where everything sort of polices itself. We’ll see what happens after the coaching staff is hired and the Bears launch into the team-building phase.
With all the candidates the Bears are interviewing, that tells me they have a lot of options. It also begs the question: Do the Bears know what they’re looking for? — @my81babyblue
It’s fair to question the process with the team casting such a wide net from the jump, but as I pointed out in my column Wednesday morning, the Bears are taking the opposite approach that Ryan Poles used in 2022 when he selected Matt Eberflus. Remember, in a span of two days after Poles was hired, he interviewed Eberflus, Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell and settled on Eberflus. All three finalists had been interviewed by the team’s search committee, and Poles was told he could open the search, meet with more candidates, take it in any direction he wanted — and he chose Eberflus.
Poles and everyone else involved this time around will have a lot more candidates to sift through, and the rules in place for the hiring cycle provide them with the time to meet a lot of potential hires. I don’t see a problem with it, provided the team remains highly organized and detailed. The Bears ought to learn something in the process.
Do you think this offseason is going to change Kevin Warren’s stadium timeline? I know he just said he wants shovels in the ground this year, but there’s a lot of other things taking his attention this offseason. Maybe Warren kept Ryan Poles so he could give more time to the stadium? — @mickmarr3
I don’t believe a coaching search, which Warren will be heavily involved with, will slow whatever progress the team is making toward getting a stadium project up and running. It’s not a valid excuse, anyway. The Bears will be busy for the next three to five weeks working to hire the next coach. In the meantime, Warren has a small army of people not affiliated with the coaching search who are working on the stadium initiative.
Other than a tax agreement for the property in Arlington Heights, we haven’t really seen any progress. The team is working on a design for a building that could be dropped anywhere — along the lakefront, in Arlington Heights, pick your location. Would there be tweaks based on where it winds up? Of course. Warren said “massive momentum” has been made in the 20 months he has been on the job but then said you’ll have to wait until spring or perhaps summer to see some of that. So sit back, kick your feet up and see what the Bears have to share in a few months.
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Since the Bears’ last Super Bowl appearance, what is the common denominator for why this organization continues to make bad personnel decisions? All I know is George Halas was a football guy and made good football decisions. It’s very difficult to be a Chicago fan with these owners here. — @kevinwillman
Halas built the Bears into a powerhouse in the first three decades of the NFL, and he hired Mike Ditka, a masterstroke. With the exception of the Ditka era, the Bears have been largely mediocre since the late 1940s.
Why have they struggled since appearing in Super Bowl XLI in the 2006 season? How much time do you have? I’ll boil it down to a few key points. They have not had a legitimate franchise quarterback, an absolute must if you want to be a consistent contender, and they’ve made poor coaching hires. Add it up and you get a lot of uneven football year after year.
If they have the right quarterback now in Caleb Williams, brighter days are ahead, assuming they make a good coaching hire. If not, well, you’ve seen the movie before and you know how it ends.
Apart from Darnell Wright, who comes back on the offensive line? — @desisherry
That will be heavily influenced by the new coaching staff. The linemen who remain under contract are Wright, Braxton Jones — who will be entering the final year of his deal — Kiran Amegadjie and Ryan Bates. Reserve center Doug Kramer is an exclusive-rights free agent and Bill Murray, Chris Glaser, Theo Benedet and Ricky Stromberg have signed reserve/future contracts. That’s it.
We’ll see what happens with Kramer, who could return. The Bears are unlikely to do a lot more subtracting from this list because the group is thin. It’s possible they explore re-signing Matt Pryor for depth because he has good size and the position flexibility to line up everywhere but center. The canvas is wide open for a new coaching staff, and that ought to be encouraging if it can fill in with the right players — think starters.
Braxton Jones has been serviceable. I am always torn. Do the Bears replace him or roll with him? If the best available in the draft is an offensive tackle, could he move inside as a big guard? — Barry, Oak Lawn
This is a question to file away as the offseason plays out and the draft approaches. Jones’ status hinges on a couple of factors. First, how does the new coaching staff evaluate him? What positions does the team prioritize in free agency? What is available in free agency? Remember, the Bears can put together a shopping list of needs, and if the right players aren’t available, it can be hard to make a move.
I’ve been of the mindset that the O-line rebuild will be focused on the interior — from guard to guard. Does that mean Jones is set as the starting left tackle? Not necessarily. As you point out, if a tremendous left tackle is on the board when the Bears are selecting at No. 10, it has to be a serious consideration.
This is purely conjecture for now until the new staff evaluates the players the Bears have under contract. And even then, they’re unlikely to candidly share that information with us. The one thing you have to consider with Jones is where he is in his growth. Has he reached a plateau? Is there more room for improvement?
I don’t see him as a candidate to start at guard. His greatest physical ability is his footwork. If he’s not the starting left tackle, he’d probably be a swing tackle in the final year of his deal.
Let’s assume the Bears love Ben Johnson and Ben Johnson loves the Bears. Can they work with his agent while the Lions are still alive in the playoffs to essentially work out a deal? Or are they prohibited from talking to his camp at all? — @therealphedog
You’re making a mighty big assumption here. But I’ll play along. Nothing would prohibit the Bears from speaking with Johnson’s agent — or any other coaching candidate’s agent — as much as they wanted to. In fact, I’d bet top dollar a LOT of conversations already have taken place with agents for all of the candidates. What will matter is the interviews the teams have.
Any update on the future of Jaquan Brisker? The Bears really missed him down the stretch, especially with Elijah Hicks being hurt as well. — Rick, Winthrop Harbor
Ryan Poles said Tuesday that Brisker and offensive lineman Ryan Bates, who both finished the season on injured reserve with concussions, are “feeling back to themselves,” so that’s good news.
Brisker missed the final 12 games, and the Bears placed him on IR in November after symptoms continued to plague him. My guess — and this is just a hunch — is that Brisker has been OK for at least a little while. Because he missed so much practice time, there just wasn’t enough time to get him back in football shape and on the field for games. So the Bears made the prudent decision to have him close out the year on IR. When he wasn’t back on the practice field in early December, it was pretty evident he wasn’t going to return.
I’m sure he will be eager to get going in the offseason program. Brisker will be entering the final year of his rookie contract, and it’s an important season for him. He has been OK when he’s on the field. Maybe he’ll flourish with new coaching. You never know what will happen, but safety is one of the easier positions to find replacements and you don’t really want to invest big money there unless you have a special player.
