In a span of seven months, the Chicago Bears have gone from having the best situation a rookie No. 1 quarterback has ever walked into to being the most appealing head coaching vacancy in the upcoming hiring cycle.
Life comes at you fast. The NFL moves faster.
At least the Bears are in the conversation for a new superlative, one that has nothing to do with performance on the field or their 4-9 record and seven-game losing streak as they prepare for Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
New North Carolina Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick, and his close circle of trusted football advisers, put the Bears atop of the list of job openings, according to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham. That’s a small achievement at this point as the serially dysfunctional New York Jets and New Orleans Saints, who are entering the grips of salary-cap hell, are the only other teams being run by interim coaches entering Week 15.
It stands to reason Belichick and others could view the Bears job as the best situation when the firing cycle is complete in January. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants could find themselves searching for a head coach. In Dallas, Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his contract. You cannot discount the possibility of a surprise move or two by other franchises. Add it up and six to eight teams will be in the hunt for their next coach.
What’s wild is the Bears shift from having an ideal setup in place for Caleb Williams to having a preferred destination for top coaching candidates while the losses have mounted. It seems incongruent that one would lead to the next. What has to be untangled is how the Bears went from having a great situation for Williams to upheaval at Halas Hall as offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired Nov. 12, coach Matt Eberflus was canned just 17 days later and the slide continues.
Williams is the biggest selling point for the Bears, a young talent capable of emerging as a franchise quarterback. Even with the ups and downs of his rookie season, he’s on pace to throw for 3,590 yards and 21 touchdowns. He has gone 255 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, which is especially notable because a lot of times when young quarterbacks are routinely pressured — Williams has been sacked a league-high 56 times, 15 more than second-place C.J. Stroud — they become turnover machines.
Williams is going to make the job interesting for prospective hires because so many rebooting teams are in quarterback purgatory or perhaps hanging on to a highly drafted player who has scuffled — sort of like Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields after the Bears swapped out coaches following their rookie seasons. This isn’t overstating Williams’ performance this season. There’s not just room for growth; he has to make necessary improvements. But the quarterback situation with nearly every other team is going to be murky at best and significantly worse on the down side.
“They’ve got the quarterback in place if they can get the right coach,” said an assistant general manager. “That’s half of the equation right there, the half that has been impossible for the Bears forever.”
The Bears’ situation looked ideal for Williams from the standpoint the team had an abundance of skill-position talent that could help him shine, throwing the ball to receivers DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze and tight end Cole Kmet. Running back D’Andre Swift and even tight end Gerald Everett, on paper, set the Bears up to have a potentially powerful offense.
The line struggled with performance and then injuries. The defense, ever since the loss to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary, hasn’t been nearly as effective as it was in the second half of last season. A series of fourth-quarter failures in four games doomed the season.
As the Bears prepare for a rematch with the Vikings — they lost 30-27 in overtime in Week 12 at Soldier Field — they can be heartened by the fact the first three NFC North games were decided by a total of seven points.
“We’re not far off at all,” Kmet said. “You’re talking about a handful of plays between us competing for a playoff spot. Really, only a handful of plays.”
It’s the familiar losers’ lament in a league in which elite teams find ways to pull out close games in crunch time, but it’s a valid point if you’re looking for signs that the team could be turned in the right direction quickly.
More important than having the most attractive option is for the Bears to find the best coach who fits their needs. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell was hired during the 2022 cycle in which the Bears chose Eberflus. He’s far and away the best hire from that year, and the Vikings didn’t have the most attractive landing spot.
In a poll I conducted of 19 coaches, league executives and veteran agents who represent coaches that year, the Vikings job ranked fourth out of the seven teams with openings. The Bears were sixth.
Minnesota was in the middle of the pack because most weren’t certain about the long-term prospects for now-former quarterback Kirk Cousins.
“It’s a far better situation than the Jaguars, however Cousins and his cap hit and the consistency situation is going to be hard to solve,” one veteran front office man said.
“It’s a bigger rebuild than most probably think, but the stadium and facility are top-notch and the owners aren’t afraid to pay for players,” said a pro personnel director.
The point is the Vikings got the hire right with O’Connell, who is 31-16 overall and 11-2 this season with Sam Darnold as his starting quarterback. The Bears can’t count on having what might be the most desirable job leading the best candidate to them. They need to identify who that coach is and find out how a vision for success at Halas Hall can be aligned.
“I think the most critical thing is I know from the roster we have right now exactly what this team needs because of the core group we have,” general manager Ryan Poles said after Eberflus was fired. “Before that was not really the case — understanding who was going to be here — it was a really tough situation to walk into. So, knowing exactly the core of our team and what traits are going to help get that team to be a championship-caliber roster.”
The Vikings with O’Connell, Detroit Lions with Dan Campbell and Green Bay Packers with Matt LaFleur all hit home runs hiring coaches. The Bears have plenty to overcome in this process as well. They’ve had a non-winning season in 12 of the last 14 years. What was supposed to be a season in which they became competitive has unraveled in embarrassing ways.
The Bears can’t walk up to the plate and settle for a single or even a double as they set out to hire a coach if they want to break out of this cycle. They have to knock one out of the park to get some traction in the league’s most difficult division because nothing about their situation — another last-place finish in the NFC North — is attractive.
Scouting report
Jonathan Greenard, Vikings outside linebacker
Information for this report was obtained from NFL scouts.
Greenard, 6-foot-3, 259 pounds, is in his first season with the Vikings after they signed him in free agency, adding him on a four-year, $76 million contract following four seasons with the Houston Texans.
Greenard exploded in 2023 with a career-high 12½ sacks and has been as good or better in Brian Flores’ scheme with the Vikings. Two of his team-leading 10 sacks came against the Bears last month at Soldier Field, and he has three forced fumbles and two pass deflections. Greenard was named the NFC defensive player of the month for the surging Vikings, who have won six consecutive games.
“His tape last year was really good,” the scout said. ” I saw him as a really hard worker and a guy who makes a lot of effort plays. Never stops. But I didn’t know if he had enough counter moves and enough traits to be that double-digit sack guy consistently. When Minnesota signed him, I said, ‘Man, he got paid a lot.’ The Vikings obviously saw a bunch in him and then Minnesota went out and drafted Dallas Turner trying to boost their edge rushers after Danielle Hunter left.
“Greenard is creating chaos off the edge right now. He is extremely fast off the ball. He’s got to the point where he can showcase his lower body flexibility so he’s continuing to improve. He’s really good at getting the edge of the offensive tackle, sinking underneath him and then really bending hard to the quarterback. He’s better against the run than I expected too. He’s a three-down player who does not have elite physical tools but can play at times like he does. Credit to Minnesota and really to him for developing as a player. He’s in a featured role now.”
