One of the more surprising news drops during the games on Sunday was that the Carolina Panthers fired their offensive coordinator Joe Brady. This is surprising because the vibes around Brady were more that he would be moving on for a head coaching job, and not relieved of his duties. Many Chicago Bears fans thought that he could be a young offensive mind to join up with Justin Fields moving forward.
While most Bears fans will throw away the idea of hiring a coach who was just fired, it is worth considering whether the team will have an interest. Tom Pelissero released a list of up-and-coming coaches to keep an eye on, and Brady topped that list. Nobody knows what happened in Carlina, but perhaps the timing just gives Brady a chance to find a GM and become a hot package deal.
Why Chicago Bears should still have interest in Joe Brady
To start, Brady is just 32 years old. I am not saying just hire a young person, but there is something to the idea that if a coordinator was going to be a good coach, he probably would have been hired before he becomes older. The fact that Brady was as far as he was as early as he was in life speaks to his potential. Before being an NFL OC, he won the national championship formulating the LSU offense.
As noted, he is highly regarded in NFL circles, and it is hard to say he failed in Carolina. Statistically, he did, but he had Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Darnold, and the ghost of Cam Newton. He also lost Christian McCaffrey, but when CMC was healthy, he always produced.
In fact, the broken-down offenses with Brady have been better than those of Nagy, and he has been able to get big years out of D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and Curtis Samuel.
He has shown that he can spread the football around, and his style of play where he spreads the field and takes shot is a good fit with Justin Fields. Considering he is well regarded in the NFL, it would make sense that he could find a defensive coordinator with former NFL coaching experience to help him come up as a young coach.
If the owner’s buy-in, and he brings in an experienced GM, and DC who are looking out for him, it is not the worst idea. They should at least interview him during his time off.
Why the Chicago Bears should not hire Joe Brady
Brady wreaks a bit of reaching for the next Sean McVay. As noted, he had better come in prepared to have plenty of NFL coaching experience on his staff, because he is young and brings none. His offense has been good but has also been up and down.
His spread football mentality is fun, but he has not shown that he can adjust and pack things in tight and play power football. It also lends to protection issues, which has been an issue for Justin Fields already.
We can say that circumstances hurt Joe Brady but he was also fired. So, whatever happened behind closed doors, he did turn people off. It would take a leap of faith to hire a coach coming off of a failed tenure considering where the Bears are.