Ranking the Chicago Bears GM candidates being interviewed

There have been many rumors going around surrounding the Chicago Bears head coach and general manager search. It was somewhat strange to hear that the team had scheduled a second interview with Matt Eberflus before a general manager was hired. Then, when you think about what happened with Ryan Pace and John Fox back in 2015, it isn’t all that surprising.

For those who do not recall, Ryan Pace was hired in the middle of the interviewing process surrounding the head coach. In fact, on the day of his hire, he was asked to interview a candidate. In the end, it is heavily rumored that Ted Phillips and George McCaskey pushed the John Fox hire onto Ryan Pace. Could we see something similar take place again?

The Chicago Bears are nearing the end of their general manager search

As we sit here right now, it is rumored that the Chicago Bears have narrowed this general manager search down to three, possibly four candidates. These three have been asked to return for second interviews, while the fourth just interviewed today. It may be too soon to rule him out. By my count, the Bears have interviewed 14 general manager candidates.

My top guy, Ed Dodds pulled his name from consideration. I have seen conflicting rumors on the reason why. Some unconfirmed sources have said that the Chicago Bears were not impressed by Dodds’ interview. While another source, Michael Lombardi, has said that the interview questions have been poor and have no focus on what the team will look like down the road and what it will take to get there. Since Dodds pulled his name, he won’t be in the actual rankings.

I am also not going to include Joe Schoen in the rankings since the Chicago Bears are no longer able to hire him. The New York Giants was the first team to sign a new general manager (three other teams including the Bears are searching) and they chose Joe Schoen. I like the idea of keeping him in the rankings to see if they made a mistake letting Schoen get away. Therefore, you can slot him in at number seven in my rankings had I included him.

Alright, here we go…