Ranking the Chicago Bears head coaching candidates being interviewed

Chicago Bears Coaching Candidate: Doug Pederson, Former Eagles HC

This is a complete shock to me that I finished with Doug Pederson in my top three. If you were to have asked me a month ago if I wanted Doug Pederson as the next head coach of the Chicago Bears, my answer would have been a resounding no. He was not on my original shortlist of coaches, but that’s also because a few of those coaches are not even getting interviews by Chicago (Kellen Moore, Dave Toub, Jim Harbaugh).

With those guys not being considered at this point, Pederson finds himself third, but not in my top tier. I have Pederson, Jim Caldwell and Nathaniel Hackett in my second tier. The pattern here is obviously offensive-minded coaches versus defensive-minded coaches.

When we look at Doug Pederson, many people are fearful that he is just another Matt Nagy. The difference here is that Pederson has proven to be a better head coach during his time in Philadelphia than Nagy did here in Chicago.

Pederson seems less of a “rah-rah” guy compared to Nagy for one. He also lets his coordinators do more as evidenced in the past by the success of Frank Reich. In his five years as the head coach of the Eagles, he helped lead the team to three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl. He has a combined record of 42-37-1 and that drastically fell off after a 4-11 season in 2020 — the year Pederson was fired.

Pederson isn’t the best quarterback guru, but I think he would make a solid CEO type. Would he bring John DeFilippo back as an offensive coordinator? DeFilippo served under Pederson as his quarterbacks coach in 2016 and 2017 before being promoted to the Vikings OC in 2018. DeFilippo moved onto the Jaguars as their OC in 2019 and was brought in as the quarterbacks coach here in Chicago. I honestly don’t want DeFilippo as the Bears OC under Pederson, but it could happen.

Pederson has shown he can lead a team and lean on his coordinators. This is something we cannot say about Nagy. That said, I don’t see him as a coach who can help groom Justin Fields enough. He struggled with Jalen Hurts and the match just might not work out. This is why he falls in this second tier and the next two guys are my clearcut favorites!