Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury's return to the NFL can not be removed from the conversation when talking about all that has gone wrong with the Chicago Bears' 2024 season.
After being fired by the Arizona Cardinals following the 2022 season, Kingsbury spent the 2023 season as an offensive consultant for Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans. The connection to Williams and USC is one of the reasons why the Bears interviewed Kingsbury last offseason for their vacant offensive coordinator position.
Ahead of the Bears' Week 8 game against the Commanders, Kingsbury was asked about the interview and avoided the conversation. As Commanders' rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels has thrived in Kingsbury's offense this season, the former Cardinals head coach has seen his profile return to prominence when discussing head coach openings across the NFL.
Kingsbury was asked on Thursday about his desire to be a head coach again, and after a hesitation, he did confirm that he would eventually want to be a head coach again. However, the impression was that he wouldn't be going out of his way to land interviews this offseason.
Kliff Kingsbury’s first public comments suggesting he wants to be a head coach again. Will be a massive story early this offseason if he accepts interviews.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) January 2, 2025
Great line of questioning by @Sam4TR. pic.twitter.com/Yzx9iGQJnL
There does seem to be some interest from Kingsbury in being a head coach again but it does sound like he is comfortable being the Commanders' offensive coordinator. Kingsbury's reluctance to be fully expressive in his desire to return to being a head coach could be chalked up to the Commanders' being in the playoff picture and not wanting to give the impression that he was distracted. To Kingsbury's credit, toward the end of Thursday's exchange, he also showed some awareness of what led to the end of his tenure with the Cardinals.
The comments from Kingsbury on Thursday does add with an exchange The Athletic's Dianna Russini shared during the latest epside of the Hoge and Jahns podcast. In talking about an interaction with Kingsbury during the preseason, Russini highlighted his renewed happiness about only being a coordinator and drawing up plays instead of being a head coach in charge of the full operation.
If Kingsbury is going to be a candidate for the Bears' opening, the team will need to know where his head is at. For how broken the Bears' locker room has become this season, a head coach is half-invested in the role of being a head coach would only further set the organization back.