These five coaches should be on the Chicago Bears head coach shortlist
These are a few guys who have bounced back and forth in my top shortlist
This is a unique hiring process and without access to actual interviews, it makes it a little more difficult to know for sure who would be the right fit. I don’t care about fitting in with George McCaskey’s ideal candidate. I want to know who is going to be the right person to help bring in and develop talent to move this offense into the current century. I’m tired of those 14-point totals every week. I want to see this team average 26-plus points each week. Is that too much to ask?
Byron Leftwich
Byron Leftwich has been put on and off my shortlist multiple times. I eventually elected to move Kellen Moore up over him and I moved Dave Toub over them both. I might be crazy here, but I just think Toub would make a great head coach. Leftwich is already scheduled to meet with the Chicago Bears for an interview. Leftwich is the Bucs offensive coordinator. We have to try and separate how much his play-calling and how much is Tom Brady and Bruce Arians.
Matt Eberflus
Not anywhere near my shortlist only because I haven’t come around to the idea of a defensive-minded coach. That said, if I put that aside, Eberflus would be towards the top of my candidates. I like the idea of Eberflus more than the likes of Leslie Frazier for example. Let me take the time here to say I do not, and I repeat, do not want Leslie Frazier as the next Chicago Bears head coach.
Eberflus has helped the Colts become a dominant defense in the NFL and pairing him Ed Dodds or Morocco Brown out of Indy would be a nice match. The Chicago Bears have requested to interview all three by the way.
Todd Bowles
If we look at Todd Bowles career, it has been up and down. He has been one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, but as a head coach, he has not had the best of luck. This is partly due to who he had at quarterback while coaching the New York Jets from 2015-2018. During that time he had Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown and Sam Darnold in his rookie season as his quarterbacks. I am not sold on a defensive-minded head coach, but Bowles is someone I’d at least interview. The
Chicago Bears agree as they have requested to interview him.
Brian Flores
This was a bit of a surprise even though we mentioned it earlier as a potential job opening as competition for the Bears. Flores is coming off back-to-back winning seasons but reports are that Flores and general manager, Chris Grier have not been on the same page lately. If I knew Flores was going to be available I would have considered him more in my top five. He could move up easily based on his interview explaining the situation there in Miami.
We will be releasing a tracker for all of the general manager and head coaching candidates being requested to interview with the Chicago Bears shortly. Check back for that and live updates as we can verify them.