The Chicago Bears should seriously consider Pete Carroll for the head coach vacancy. I am not completely sure of my preferred order of the massive lists of Bears coaching prospects, but it is probably something like this.
- Mike Vrabel
- Brian Flores
- Ben Johnson
- Mike McCarthy
- Pete Carroll
Why is Pete Carroll higher on my list over guys like Kliff Kingsbury and Todd Monken? Simple, he knows what he is doing and is a proven success. The 73-year-old head coach knows how to be a head coach. You can take all of Pete Carroll's negatives and find a solution. He is 73 and will likely retire soon.
According to Brad Briggs of the Chicago Tribune, Carroll has a succession plan for when he retires. If you look into the history of Pete Carroll's assistance, you can see some successful position coaches and some not. One could argue that Shane Waldron, who previously was the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator, is a prime example of a failure. However, why didn't he fail under Pete Carroll?
Carroll's success plan likely wouldn't include someone most would know. The Bears won't be able to steal current coordinators in the league from other teams. That isn't how it works. So don't think Liam Cohen or Joe Brady in the future is who is being groomed by Carroll. Clint Hurtt is the first name that comes to mind. He was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Carroll when he was still the Seahawks head coach.
Hurtt is now the defensive line coach under Mike Tomlin's Steelers. Sanjay Lal was the passing game coordinator under Carroll and is the receivers coach under Jim Harbaugh's Chargers. Most Bear fans already know Kerry Joseph, Chad Morton, and Thomas Brown, all coaches with whom Pete Carroll has connections. The succession plan is the easy part.
You are concerned about the offensive side of the ball, right? Some of the coaches mentioned are already in place, so Caleb Williams wouldn't have to learn a new offense. Now, we can talk about how the offense was bad quite a bit during the 2024 NFL season. However, there were times when it was on fire. Even Thomas Brown shared how if he got to run it back, he could completely change the offensive to his liking compared to running the already installed Shane Waldron offense.
A prime example is the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen. Allen is running the same playbook that Brian Daboll created with Sean McDermott. When Daboll left, Ken Dorsey took over that playbook with his modifications, and when he was fired, Joe Brady used that same playbook and used it even better. The defensive vs offensive-minded coach thing needs to go. It doesn't matter. You need to be a good head coach. There are just as many failed offensive minds as successful ones. For every Sean Mcvay, there are two or three Anthony Lynn's.