Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears have had only 18 head coaches in the 106 years of the franchise’s existence. We all know the great, Hall of Fame head coaches that have led the Bears to victory, headlined by Papa Bear, George Halas, and featuring such luminaries as Mike Ditka and Lovie Smith. Those coaches won championships, made Super Bowl appearances, and earned their spots as coaching legends.
Then there are…the other guys. The Chicago Bears have, unfortunately for the Beloved, been led by head coaches who simply failed to cut the mustard on any metric or criteria of coaching quality. Be it as leaders of men, as gridiron tacticians, or as evaluators of football talent. But who was the worst head coach of the Chicago Bears? Unfortunately, we have several candidates to consider. So, let’s set the stage by considering what objective criteria we might use to rank our head coaches in terms of their ineptitude. Won-loss record is the obvious metric of head coach success. And certainly, it should play a part in the judgment of any head coach. However, it cannot be all we consider. The Chicago Bears have fielded football teams of varying quality, have faced varying strength of schedules, and have permitted their head coaches varying levels of input on organizational decisions.
The worst head coach in Bears history must be a failure in all aspects of head coaching, have lost consistently, and never once led them to any form of championship, be it a divisional, conference, or league championship. That, by itself, eliminates some head coaches of the Bears who have received plenty of criticism for their coaching styles and performance as Chicago Bears head coaches. Much as Mark Trestman was clearly a poor hire, having been foolishly plucked from the Canadian Football League over Bruce Arians, he is not the worst Chicago Bears head coach of all time. Sure, he lost the locker room in embarrassing fashion in his second season. And he never led the Bears to any kind of championship. However, he did lead the Bears to an 8-8 record in his first season, and this was largely a consequence of his offensive scheme. So – bad head coach? Yes. But not the worst.
That also eliminates the much maligned Matt Nagy, who won a divisional championship and led the Bears to a 12-4 record before the double doink would turn him back into a pumpkin. Over achievers like Dick Jauron are eliminated, having posted surprising winning seasons. And I think we have to eliminate a head coach like John Fox, who, despite being an utter failure with the Bears, had enormous success as a head coach prior to coaching the Bears, and he never lost the locker room.
Before anointing the worst head coach in Bears history, we have to identify the runner-up. For some it might be a surprising choice, given he did make a playoff appearance and even won a playoff game: Dave Wannstedt. Wanny may have looked the part of...
