Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Who will be the Bears next head coach?
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Today’s is a big one. We’ll discuss George McCaskey’s press conference and who will be the Bears next head coach. Once you get through the newsletter, hop in the comments and make the case for your guy.
Last week, I cleaned out my childhood bedroom. It was a tall task.
The room was filled with a lot of stuff, including: a slew of childhood sports trophies (and I mean, A LOT of trophies) as well as posters of sports stars gone by, such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, David Grimes (former Notre Dame receiver), Mia Hamm, DeJuan Blair (former Pittsburgh basketball star), Dwyane Wade, the 2004-2005 Illinois basketball team, and Blake Lively being kissed on the neck by a Gossip Girl castmate (that one will be making its way to Lakeview).
In addition to those posters, there were a stack of high school report cards buried in my childhood desk. Was I saving those for a specific, sentimental reason? Absolutely not.
Instead, they had been hidden there purposefully for about 12 years because my mid-term report cards were often riddled with Cs, Ds, and the occasional F. I was a menace to society, and to my parents.
Despite my lack of attention to academia at the time, my problem-solving skills were still sharp. I’d pay close attention to the mail as the school quarters came to a close and grab that report card from the front porch when it did arrive. My parents would then be none the wiser for the following eight weeks.
I treated the report card back in those days just as recently-graduated girls treat puppies. I snatched them at first sight, ran with them, and took pictures of them for my friends to laugh at. The difference being, in the end, I did not simply give away my report card to my parents once a single problem arose. I, instead, kept my report cards hidden from my parents for well over a decade.
Eventually, though, my parents were made aware of my poor performance. My father admonished me, and also set expectations: not only did I need to get better grades from here on out, but also, I needed to receive ‘A’s, or at the very least, all ‘A’s and ‘B’s.
His Stalin-esque speech included unreasonable demands and interrogations such as “just do your homework” and “why the hell do you have an F in Spanish class?” He sounded like a tyrant.
I have an F in Spanish, DAD, because I speak two things, and Spanish ain’t one of them: english and facts.
Not sure that’s exactly what I said to him, but I imagine it was something along those lines.
My mother sincerely felt bad for me after my father’s bashing.
She said to me that I was fine to get ‘B’s, and even some ‘C’s. In fact, she more or less told me — and I’m not joking here — that trying hard enough to get straight ‘A’s in high school was for dorks and losers.
A tad confused, but also excited to get half of the parental partnership on my side, I agreed. We took that concept to my Dad, and I’m not sure he took it well.
The point here — and there always is one!, if you bear with me — is this…
George McCaskey on Monday laid out the reasons why he would continue being the Chicago Bears effective leader, despite having not overseen a single playoff win his decade-old tenure.
They weren’t abundant: The board still had confidence in him.
That board that consists of mostly family members of his, as well as Ted Phillips. As for Ted Phillips’ case, if I was woefully inadequate at my job, and my boss — who refused to fire me — was asking if he should continue being the leader, I’d probably give him a vote of confidence as well.
But the secretary of that board, in the end, is his mother, Virginia McCaskey. And it turns out, although George said his 99-year-old mother was “very, very disappointed” in the season, she was willing to let him keep his job.
And that’s where George McCaskey and my life collide: When you’re really bad at basically your only responsibility in life, asking your mother to express sympathy and let you stay the course can sometimes work.
The only difference between our situations is that my mom, on one hand, has a clear distaste for losers and dorks. George McCaskey’s mom is just, well, almost 100 years old.
‘I’m just a fan. I’m not a football evaluator.’
If you thought the leader of a multi-billion dollar enterprise talking about his mommy believing in him was bad, you didn’t watch the rest of the train wreck that was McCaskey’s year-ending press conference.
The Bears fired Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace on Monday — that felt good.
Then George McCaskey spoke — that felt bad.
The NFL is a tough, cutthroat league. It was extremely evident during this presser that the Bears are operating as a VHS company while the vast majority of the league is building out their new streaming services.
They do not have a football-minded approach, and that’s why they don’t see when or why there’s a terribly broken football product on the field.
Each of the Bears “leaders” clung to false realities and general statements and shied away from any facts presented to them.
The delusions presented by the them became the story. And in a press conference where they told us nothing, they inadvertently told us everything.
*Record scratch*
The preceding four paragraphs were not written by me today. Instead, they were written by me 364 days ago when George McCaskey last sat down to face the media and talk about the future of the Chicago Bears.
Though the presser was allegedly to discuss what’s changed, it’s clear not much has.
Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy are gone. But the problem, as I’ve written about repeatedly, was so much deeper than them.
For a split second, I really did feel such a sense of relief when Nagy was fired. We knew the move was coming, but I saw a future ahead where we would no longer need to go over, time and again, how unfit for the job he was. The slate was blank and I was ready to write about the next chapter.
But before I could begin writing that, George McCaskey slammed the book in my face and wrote his own parody instead with the blank pages.
First, McCaskey opened up the press conference by offering condolences to the media on the Zoom call over losing their dear friend Jeff Dickerson, the former ESPN Bears writer who recently lost his life to cancer. The story is gutting — one I’m sure most of you have heard. It left Parker Dickerson, his son, without either parent. His mother lost his life to cancer as well a couple of years back.
What came next though is, frankly, reprehensible. At best, it is mind-numbingly self-unaware. At worst, its manipulative and insidious.
McCaskey segued from sending thoughts and prayers to Parker Dickerson to chastising the chants aimed at Matt Nagy’s son (“Fire Nagy”) at a high school football game this past fall.
It was almost as if he was buttering up the media to make an absurd false equivalence to Matt Nagy’s kids who were subject to a “Fire Nagy” chant from a bunch of teenagers.
How is that relevant, to anything? To Jeff Dickerson, to the future of the Chicago Bears… anything?
If George McCaskey spoke to the media more than once per year, he could have addressed this “issue” when it happened, months ago.
Why should anyone on the call, media or fan, be subject to that lecturing? The only ones that deserve blame are the chanters themselves — a student section of a rival high school. And even then, they’re *also* kids, why are we addressing this in a news conference immediately after the GM and head coach were fired?
He then began droning on about the character of both Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. That’s all fine and good, but he did call each of them “free of ego.” Nagy is a lot of things, “free of ego” is definitively not one of them.
His monologue continued. “2018 was a great ride” he said, before admitting the success was not sustained. Newsflash to McCaskey — and the rest of the Bears brass, frankly — that was four years ago, brotha!
Pointing to 2018’s success even in 2021 shows a clear detachment from the business of the NFL. That is an eternity removed from one successful season, a season that didn’t even yield a playoff win.
He also pointed to Nagy’s “won-loss” record being positive before the 2021 season as a reason he was held onto. That shows a clear detachment from the football field. To have watched 2019 and 2020, and still not seen 2018 as the outlier, shows nothing but pure delusion.
“Our guys never quit,” McCaskey went on to say.
First of all, I’m not quite sure that is true. I remember vividly instances of Bears players quitting this season, namely Allen Robinson. But even if they didn’t — that is not a testament to an NFL franchise or football team. These guys are all professionals, this is their livelihood. They are literally incentivized to play hard in order to maintain their career moving forward.
McCaskey’s second-largest misstep in the press conference came during the question and answer period. When asked about a story that had been circulated regarding former Bear Olin Kreutz — who said he was offered $15 per hour to coach as an O-line assistant — McCaskey didn’t just refute the story. He called Kreutz, essentially, a liar.
“I’ve learned over the years to take just about anything that Olin says with a grain of salt,” he said.
“That’s the way it is sometimes with Olin… You don’t get the whole story. Olin knows (what) the story is.”
“If that man would’ve said that to my face, we would’ve had a problem," Kreutz later said on 670 The Score.
This part was remarkable for three reasons:
Firstly, I always thought that McCaskey was a good enough guy and just bad at his job. He’s increasingly shown a different side of him — not a lovable village idiot but instead a combative buffoon.
Kreutz confirmed the story with then-offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and Ryan Pace!, who said that that was the going rate for training camp assistants. Clearly, George had not talked to Kreutz (as he confirmed) and his attack on his character — a guy who played for the organization for years, through plenty of injuries — was completely unfounded.
Lastly, the most important point is this: even if Kreutz was bending the truth (he wasn’t and doesn’t seem to ever do that), why would you ever say this? Kreutz is not only a former player, he’s one of the most beloved Chicago Bears of the modern era. He’s also currently one of the most trusted voices in Bears media. Fans love Olin Kreutz. Again, it’s apparent that McCaskey is inconceivably out of touch.
I didn’t want to spend this much time on another presser, but couldn’t help myself. But before we move on to coaching candidates, I’ll leave you with this.
The ultimate takeaway is the same it’s always been, of course. That the Bears are run by clueless successors. But if there was anything tangible to take from the cringe-worthy press conference, it’s who will be deciding on the next head coach and general manager.
Those people are: McCaskey, Ted Phillips, Former Colts GM Bill Polian, Bears Director of Player Engagement LaMar “Soup” Campbell, and the Bears SVP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Tanesha Wade.
Given that McCaskey is a part of the NFL’s diversity committee, Wade’s inclusion on the search committee makes sense. Likewise, by all accounts, Campbell is a staple at Halas Hall and someone who’s very much in tune with the players. That perspective is valuable and also makes sense.
Ted Phillips, despite McCaskey saying that the GM would no longer report to him (and instead directly to McCaskey himself), will be a part of it because “he will negotiate the contract.”
(McCaskey said that that organizational structure — a GM running football operations fully and reporting to him, without a president of football ops — was the “right structure” for the Bears and one “that works for them.” That’s more of a lie than anything Kreutz has ever said, surely, because nothing has worked for them!)
…
(Instead of middling in football operations in the future, apparently Phillips will focus completely on the potential move to Arlington Heights. For those of you in love with the idea — yuck — I hope you know that Phillips is the guy running the show there.)
Then there’s Bill Polian. Polian was a very successful GM in his days in the NFL. He will forget more about football than McCaskey will ever know. But his involvement, just like Ernie Accorsi’s back in the day, proves that McCaskey cannot do the job on his own. He continues to inadvertently prove his own inadequacy.
Because Polian is nearly 80 — and has said some dumb things as part of the media over the last decade — his involvement has been scrutinized heavily.
McCaskey continually quoted Polian’s book as if it was the bible — or JFK’s “Profiles in Courage,” frankly. He kept saying the Bears would make “the right move” even if it wasn’t the most popular. I’m scared to know what that means.
But if we can all agree that McCaskey is truly not up for the job, at the very least, someone with Polian’s expertise should be a part of the process. By no means am I suggesting he’s the best man for the job, but two things are true: he’s clearly going to have a very major role in the process and he’s better than Phillips and McCaskey on their own.
McCaskey said the GM would “ideally” be hired before the coach, and the Bears have reportedly already reached out to plenty. But they’ve also already reached out to plenty of coaches. If you think hiring the coach is putting the cart before the horse, I’d look away.
Coaching Candidates
Sometimes, the only time that it’s fun to be a Bears fan is when you’re hoping for a future misaligned with the past. Predicting and evaluating potential coaching candidates is one of these times.
Despite prognosticators and writers often failing to admit this fact, we can acknowledge here that we don’t know much about how some of these coordinators will fare as head coaches. Obviously, to some extent, we don’t know how anyone will. Even with an experienced coach like John Fox, who had a proven record of winning in the NFL, we still didn’t know!
But that’s especially the case with coordinators. In this case, at the very least, George McCaskey will have the right information to know more than us.
Here are the candidates that the Bears have requested to interview (without a GM) thus far: Former Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson; Bills Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier; Bills Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll; Former Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores; Bucs Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich; Bucs Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles; Packers Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett; Colts Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus; and Cowboys Defense Coordinator Dan Quinn.
Of the above candidates, all but four have NFL head coaching experience: Daboll, Leftwich, Hackett, and Eberflus.
The other two candidates that have been rumored, but have not yet been requested for interview (at least reportedly) are Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day.
One thing that I think is imperative to remember during this process is that in recent history the Bears have always tried to find the opposite of who they just fired. Lovie Smith was a defensive mind who cared too little about the offense. He was replaced by the inexperienced Marc Trestman, who cared about the offense and literally nothing else. Trestman was replaced by the straight-edged, experienced, defensive-minded John Fox. Fox was then replaced by a first-time head coach and “offensive guru, risk taker” in Matt Nagy.
If that pattern follows, the next guy will be one with head coaching experience who has experience on the defensive side of the ball. Of the above candidates, that would include Dan Quinn, Todd Bowles, Brian Flores, and Leslie Frazier.
In reality, the Bears should be working from Fields, down. If Fields doesn’t pan out, after all, we’re back to square one again. Of course, he should not be the only consideration.
That’s a lot of names here. For the sake of this exercise, I’ll put these candidates into tiers.
Top tier
Doug Pederson and Brian Flores are two names that have been head coaches in the past two years (Pederson last for the Eagles in 2020 and Flores up until this week). Each of them, in my mind, were wrongfully fired.
I see Pederson basically as a rich — very rich — version of Matt Nagy. He’s what the Bears thought they were getting in Nagy. A part of the Andy Reid coaching tree, Pederson won a Super Bowl against the Patriots with Nick Foles at the helm. He left the Eagles after a rift with the front office. He brought the absolute best out of Carson Wentz and Nick Foles and is a demonstrable winner.
Flores, a Belichick disciple, seems to be one of the only guys who ever left the Patriots and didn’t try to create a Belichickian caricature of himself. His first year with Miami, the front office traded away basically everyone worth anything. They were considered the most likely team to go 0-16 that year, and instead, they improved greatly throughout and went a respectable (for their roster) 5-11. The next year, they went 10-6, just missing a playoff berth. This year, they started a brutal 1-7 before winning 8 of the final 9 games to finish 9-8 and again barely missed the playoffs.
Flores is apparently being replaced by a special someone that the Dolphins are after. But the only thing that held Flores full rebuild back, frankly, is the fact that the front office chose the wrong quarterback. Instead of a future MVP candidate in Justin Herbert, Flores was stuck with an inconsistent Tua Tagovailoa.
Granted, Flores’ defense was never *great* in Miami, but his leadership skills were very evidently top-notch, and his story is one of a man who did the absolute best with the hand he was dealt.
Brian Daboll would have ended up in the next category for me even last week, but after I put more thinking into it, he’s been bumped up. First of all, he looks like a Bears fan that drives in from Northwest Indiana for every single home game.
He’s also overseen the transformation of Josh Allen, who was considered a talented but fraught quarterback prospect out of a non-power 5 school in Wyoming. Since, Allen has become an MVP candidate and one of the best three or four quarterbacks in the entire league.
Daboll has worked under both Nick Saban and Bill Belichick, but he’s also become one of the familiar faces in the coaching carousel over the last two years.
What makes me excited about the prospects of Daboll is of course Allen’s progress. But also, he’s a coordinator that has succeeded with a head coach who specializes in the opposite side of the ball. Therefore, we’re not forced to parse out how much impact he’s had on the offense’s success.
Maybe, but I have questions
We’ll start this tier with Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh is one of my favorite football coaches — actually forget that, people.
For the love of God, when he joined Michigan they were probably my least favorite football team in the country — NFL or college. Over time, my rooting interests for Harbaugh even trumped my distaste for Michigan. That’s how much I love the guy.
But as the Bears head coach? I honestly don’t know how I feel about it yet.
Part of what makes Harbaugh such a great personality is what may hurt him in the NFL. He had a ton of success in San Fransisco — a super bowl berth and multiple trips to the NFL championship — but in the end, the players and front office grew sour on him. He’s fit for college in that way: he takes his shirt off and runs around in spikes and football gloves. The novelty of Harbaugh is appreciated more in a college football culture that embraces weirdos. The NFL does not embrace its weirdos quite as much.
At the same time, he would likely be a good mentor to Fields. And his track record speaks for itself, unless you don’t get the hierarchy of college football. He’s won everywhere he’s been.
But it’s not as if the Bears have strong organizational structure. Would Harbaugh create a better culture, or would his personality and strategy create an even more combustable situation?
Todd Bowles has had the benefit of time on his side. The more coaches the Jets hire, the better he looks. Bowles, as a first-time head coach, took the Jets from 4-12 the year before he got there to 10-6 in his first year. After that, two 5-11 seasons got him canned. But his first season is by far the best that the Jets have had in the last decade.
Everywhere Bowles go, good defenses follow. It’s the case when he’s a coordinator, and it was the case when he was a head coach. If there’s anyone that deserves a second shot at a head coaching gig, it’s him.
He wouldn’t be a sexy hire, though. And he would probably require an innovative offensive coordinator, both to combat his more conservative coaching style and so Fields could properly progress.
Not excited about it
Eberflus is probably a smart guy, and he’s been a good coordinator for the Colts the past four years. But there’s just too much unknown here. He could be the guy, but I’m not going to be the one that says he is.
The same goes for Hackett. He works for a very strong organization in the Packers, and also aids Matt LaFleur’s efforts. Again, it’s hard to parse out.
Ryan Day is unlikely to happen. He’s also a college coach, which is an inherent risk. That doesn’t apply for Harbaugh, of course, given his experience.
Leftwich could make a great head coach someday, but he’s relatively new to coaching still. He’s young, and works underneath a great offensive mind in Bruce Arians. Plus, he’s had Tom Brady and a ton of talent elsewhere in Tampa.
Absolutely not
Leslie Frazier knows the Bears well from his time as a player here. He also sucked as a head coach. Glory to the 1985 Bears + a bad head coaching stint + success with Sean McDermott (defensive mind) = hell no.
Dan Quinn went to a Super Bowl. He also blew that Super Bowl, and made countless other simple mistakes as Atlanta’s coach. I’m good on leaving him in his coordinator spot.
Who do you want? Comment below.
As for the GM situation, that’s much harder to evaluate from my seat. The name that I’ve seen most excitement about is Indianapolis Colts VP of Player Personnel Ed Dodds. He works under Chris Ballard, who of course, the Bears could have hired long ago.
Plenty more coaching and GM candidates will likely arise in the coming days, and I’ll discuss them here. There are of course other, big names that Bears fans are wishing for, such as Sean Payton. I’ll refrain from getting my hopes up until more concrete reports tell us there’s a chance that happens.
Thanks for reading! We’ll talk soon. Until then, don’t forget to leave a comment.
Source: Chicago Bears
I wasn't sold on Daboll (because I knew virtually nothing about him) until I saw his mustache. Bring this man to Chicago!
Pederson is who I thought Nagy was when the Bears went to the playoffs in Mitch's second season. I think I'd be happy with either of them.
I do believe that is exactly what your mother said but I can guarantee you didn’t give me that smart response.
Andrew wasn’t as sleuth as he represents himself. I showed up to one of his Baseball games only to have to coach come up and apologize that I didn’t know he was suspended for grades. Then coach Powell was trying to get him to wrestle but informed me he couldn’t because of his grades.
Things will never change with the Bears because they are, by far, the cheapest team in the NFL. How many Halas generations do you think are on that payroll? The reason they will not hire a President of Football Operations is because that role is paid significantly more than GM. They won’t do it.
George McCaskey came across as like Tommy Farley on Tommy Boy being in front of the Board explaining how to save the company. He has no idea. But I do know Halas is turning over in his grave watching his spoiled offspring ruin one of the greatest businesses on earth.
I love Harbaugh but don’t want him for this job. We need an Offensive mind that will bring continuity to an offense. I don’t know who that is! But, if everything goes like it always does, we will go the cheap route and then all we have is hope that we luck out.