Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
With the Arizona Cardinals’ 27-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers, it means that defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is available for interviews. According to multiple sources, as of a couple of days ago Bowles has drawn interest from all teams with head coaching vacancies, including the Chicago Bears.
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The Bears officially confirmed their interviews with the coordinators of the top seeds, Broncos OC Adam Gase and Seahawks DC Todd Quinn. Those interviews took place while the Bears are still sorting out their GM search, which gives me a bad feeling.
If the Bears have interest in Bowles, they’ll need to be aggressive. He’s set to interview with the Raiders and word from ESPN Insider John Clayton is that it’s Atlanta or Bust for Bowles. J Clay doesn’t think Chicago is a very good destination for Bowles:
"Then you look over and see what’s going on in Chicago, and I don’t know if he’d be a big advocate of going in there, either having Jay Cutler as his quarterback or trading Jay Cutler and not having a quarterback. I’d say, right now, Atlanta or bust.”"
The funny thing about Bowles is that he would have been the Bears’ defensive coordinator if Bruce Arians had been hired. The plan all along for to have Bowles come in as his DC, but Phil Emery insisted on Arians keeping former Love Smith DC Rod Marinelli. Arians didn’t like that idea and ended up in Arizona when Phil Emery signed his termination papers by hiring Marc Trestman instead.
The Bears will look to right the wrong they made a couple of years ago and talk to Bowles. He’s been the architect of the Cardinals defense that has ranked 5th and 7th in scoring the last two seasons. If you’re looking to restore the Bears to a defensive oriented team, Bowles would be a great choice. Bowles does have a touch of head coaching experience, serving as the interim head coach for the Miami Dolphins when Tony Sporano was terminated in December of 2011.