By the end of the day Monday, the Chicago Bears had announced nine completed interviews for head coach.
The first interview, Mike Vrabel, was the first to be named head coach — of the New England Patriots.
The list so far: Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, former Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera and former Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown.
Now that the wild-card playoff games are done, the Bears can interview Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and former Stanford coach David Shaw, who works for the Denver Broncos.
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There’s interest in Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell. NFL Network reported that Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is on the list.
Who isn’t?
Plus, the second week of head-coaching interviews brought a newly available candidate. Mike McCarthy is now in play after parting ways with the Dallas Cowboys on Monday.
Let’s look at where the Bears stand after the first week of interviews.
Jahns: I’m really trying not to roll my eyes at the wide net the Bears are casting for their search. They can argue about the value of turning over every stone, but maybe they’re looking under the wrong stones. The Bears haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. Their next hire will be the sixth head coach under chairman George McCaskey. There should only be doubts about the Bears’ process and decision-making until they get it right. The franchise has only three playoff wins since 2000.
In the end, the Bears were probably no match for the Patriots to hire Vrabel. But does it bother you that the Bears didn’t at least host Vrabel — who is widely considered one of the best candidates in this year’s cycle — for a visit at Halas Hall? It bothers me. It raises more concerns about their wide-ranging process. Not all candidates are the same. Carroll shouldn’t be viewed as Petzing’s peer in this process.
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Fishbain: I’d be curious about their logic in not bringing Vrabel to Halas Hall last week, let alone any day after his contract with the Browns ended. But as you said, the Patriots job felt like fait accompli, and maybe the Bears got that sense. But why not fly Carroll in?
Maybe this is an unfair comparison, but the last time the Bears patted themselves on the back for a thorough search, they wound up with Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator. It’s bewildering to me that they weren’t able to narrow down the candidate list in the five weeks since firing Matt Eberflus. If they get the “right” coach in the end, no one will care, and we do have to acknowledge the NFL rules complicate timing a bit. Since the Bears knew they couldn’t move forward with wild-card coaches until this week or make a final decision until satisfying the Rooney Rule, then it might make more sense to go ahead and load up on virtual interviews and keep gathering intel.
Jahns: When it comes to Vrabel, there are also questions about the Bears’ power structure. It didn’t take long for reports to emerge regarding the Patriots and Ryan Cowden, the former Titans executive who is now working with the Giants. He was once Vrabel’s pick for general manager in Tennessee. And now they’ll apparently work together in New England. Vrabel got his guy. It’s completely fair to wonder if the Bears were willing to consider the same.
As for this week, the Bears will have their first opportunities to speak to Flores, Kingsbury, Brady and Monken. But McCarthy is the headliner after what transpired in Dallas. I wonder how much McCaskey would struggle with the idea of turning to a Super Bowl-winning former Packers head coach for help. It’s also worth wondering how much the Cowboys would interest Johnson after his success with Jared Goff in Detroit.
Fishbain: McCarthy is very much a possibility, which apparently strikes fear in Bears fans. If you want to ignore his success in Green Bay and say it was just because of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, how do you explain three consecutive seasons in Dallas finishing in the top five in scoring, including two years as the best scoring offense in football? Or this season, coaching mainly with Cooper Rush at quarterback and still finishing 17th in total offense? In 2023, the Cowboys ranked second in EPA (expected points added) per play. They were seventh in ’22 and sixth in ’21. The Bears’ best finish since 2000 was sixth in 2013.
Here’s an offensive-minded coach with more than enough accolades. He’ll know how to run a building. He’ll have a plan for Caleb Williams, whom he must be interested in if he’s intrigued by the Bears job. His game management might be questionable at best, but frankly, whose isn’t these days? Who watched the playoff games and had qualms with timeout usage or fourth-down decisions?
It’ll be very interesting to monitor the McCarthy situation and, as you said, how his Packers history comes into play. Among the coaches expected to hop on video calls this week with the Bears’ brass, who are you highlighting?
The Bears have surely taken notice of Todd Monken’s work with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. (Nick Cammett / Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Jahns: How about Monken? Under his leadership, the Ravens offense ranked first in yards and third in scoring this season after being sixth in yards and fourth in scoring last season. Yes, he has Lamar Jackson, who had another MVP-caliber season under Monken after winning the award last year. But that wasn’t true during the 2022 season when Greg Roman was the Ravens’ play caller. I also like that Monken recently had success at Georgia, where he was the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for three seasons, including winning two national championships. Monken doesn’t have the same NFL experiences as Carroll, Rivera, Kingsbury, Flores or Smith. That’s five former NFL head coaches. But Monken was the head coach at Southern Miss for three seasons (2013-15). His team improved every year he was there, culminating in Conference USA coach of the year honors in 2015.
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Fishbain: Monken definitely seems to have the personality that would mesh in this city and with the team. But it’s his offenses that really stand out, and I like that he was part of national championship college teams recently — he should have no problem with the Bears’ locker room.
Flores is the other candidate with head-coaching experience to keep an eye on, especially with his Boston College connection to GM Ryan Poles. He knows the division well and presumably will have a plan at quarterback and answers to what he learned from his time in Miami. What Brady has done in Buffalo is also worth noting. How he handles the job interviews or how he projects as a head coach are questions like they are for Johnson, and Brady is also one of the youngest candidates at 35.
One more name I’m interested in this week is Shaw. He hasn’t coached since 2022 at Stanford but was a senior personnel executive with the Broncos this season and has previously been connected to NFL jobs. He would be the ultimate out-of-left-field hire for the Bears of this group.
None of this means that Johnson, Glenn or Carroll, or any of the guys who have interviewed, are out of it. This process might have another couple of weeks to go, and with the Cowboys now involved, the competition has increased.
(Top photos of Mike McCarthy and Pete Carroll: Ronald Martinez, Jane Gershovich / Getty Images)
