Windy City Gridiron
For the fifth time in 13 years, the Chicago Bears will be on the prowl for a new head coach. Instead of giving you the usual head coaching rankings, here are my three tiers for what the Bears should be looking for.
With the conclusion of Week 18 in the rearview mirror, the Chicago Bears will be one of six to eight expected teams to change gears into a full-fledged head coaching search. With the NFL’s new guidelines on interview timelines, the days of hiring head coaches over a week span are long gone. That allows teams like Chicago to expand their searches, take their time, and make the right decision.
For a franchise like the Bears, “making the right decision” hasn’t existed since hiring Lovie Smith from the St. Louis Rams in 2004. In fact, Chicago has made it a longstanding tradition to hire one of the absolute worst choices, starting with the Marc Trestman hire in 2012. Matt Nagy would be the one candidate that I would argue worked out well enough not to be considered a “bad hire” in the grand scheme of the process.
Heading into the week ahead, the Chicago Bears franchise will be looking to hire their fifth head coach in 13 years. For reference, Smith lasted nine years in Chicago, posting a (81-63) record with three playoff appearances and a (3-3) record in those games. Since then, Chicago has been one of the league’s worst teams, with just one winning season, two playoff appearances, no playoff wins, and a collective record of (75-121). During the post-Lovie era, the Bears have had eight double-digit losing seasons.
The good news is that their roster is in a solid spot, and the resources will be plentiful again during the 2025 offseason. As we’ve learned over the last decade-plus, hiring the right head coach is key to turning this ship around. With another critical offseason ahead, objective No. 1 is hiring the right head coach and coaching staff. As a disclaimer, I’m fully aware that my rankings will share a heavy bias toward the offensive side of the ball. I’m very much in the mindset of an offensive-minded head coach or bust. These tiers are also tailored toward the Bears and do not directly reflect how I’d rank these candidates for each team that is searching for a head coach.
*For me, this is the only group I’d be choosing from. I fully acknowledge that pigeonholing a team into a specific set of like-minded candidates could be problematic. Still, I’d argue that hiring anyone except an offensive coach in Chicago wouldn’t make sense. The Bears don’t need a “leader of men”; they need a successful offensive head coach who can take Caleb Williams to the next level. Although Johnson is my top choice, it should be noted that neither Matt LaFleur nor Kevin O’Connell were viewed as the top offensive...
