So who are the Bears going to hire as their next head coach?
There are two schools of thought here:
1. The Bears are going to hire an offensive-minded coach to shepherd Caleb Williams to stardom.
2. The Bears are going to hire a “leader of men.”
Now, a coach could be both of these things — Jim Harbaugh comes to mind — but it’s likely to be one or the other.
“Leader of men” is a football cliche that should only be said, or typed, with a wink, but it’s not without some value and if you’re following these things, it shouldn’t be ignored for this coaching cycle.
Can someone please explain to @DMRussini what the Bears 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 mean when they say they’re looking for a leader of men?
She and @ChaseDaniel analyze the Bears’ head coach search: https://t.co/kuOliRNUbc pic.twitter.com/I5qBi2Dr4y
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 3, 2024
The best current examples of “leader of men” head coaches would be Mike Tomlin and Dan Campbell, who just so happen to be the two favorites for Coach of the Year.
Tomlin is a former defensive coordinator coaching a franchise known for its defense. He was already wildly popular in NFL circles and that was before his star turn in the first episode of the NFC North “Hard Knocks.”
Campbell was a tight ends coach (and a former NFL tight end). While Campbell’s history is on the offensive side of the ball, he’s not lumped in with the Kevin O’Connells and Matt LaFleurs of the world, partly because he’s built like a professional wrestler.
Football coaches are like a holiday trend. Some years, everyone wants an offensive genius who looks like a tech entrepreneur, other years, they want the guy with bulging biceps and a dip in their lips or the unflappable veteran who can coach all kinds of players.
Given that this is a copycat league, it’s a good time to be coaches like Mike Vrabel and Brian Flores.
Mike Vrabel is the ultimate player’s coach 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GkGNKaPeMo
— Football’s Greatest Moments (@FBGreatMoments) December 4, 2024
Outside of Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, Vrabel, the former head coach in Tennessee, is the hot name in Chicago. But my early favorite is Flores, the defensive coordinator in Minnesota and former head coach in Miami.
The impossible-to-ignore mark against Flores is he had a bad relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa while he was the head coach in Miami. Tagovailoa opened up about his issues with Flores over the summer and the coach responded by admitting he made mistakes with the QB.
Given that “relationship with young quarterback” is supposed to be front and center for this hire, you’d think that would eliminate him, but it shouldn’t. Bears GM Ryan Poles, president Kevin Warren (who came from Minnesota) should absolutely bring him in and see what’s what. If I were them, I’d be more interested in what Flores learned from his season with Tomlin in 2022.
The connections are there. Like Poles, Flores is a Boston College guy. He also started his NFL career as a scout for the Patriots. Both have worked for Scott Pioli.
Reading up on him, I think Flores is probably the right guy for this team at this time. He’s been a difference-maker in Minnesota with complete buy-in from his players. He said he learned from his failure in Miami, and Tua issues aside, he was fired after two winning seasons. The Bears have also had two winning seasons … since making the NFC championship after the 2010 season.
I don’t know the guy, but something about Flores just speaks to me.
“I love coaching them”- Coach Brian Flores pic.twitter.com/jMuV9K1rZu
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 3, 2024
We all know the other popular candidates for the job, but another interview I’d like the Bears to do is with Flores’ co-worker, Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, who, of course, played for the Bears several coaches ago.
McCown is a natural leader and while he shouldn’t be a top candidate for this job based on his limited coaching experience, I’d be curious for his thoughts on how he would maximize Williams’ talents and also about the Bears’ perennial issues. Sure, Poles and Warren will tell you the past is the past until they’re blue in the face, but similar problems keep cropping up at Halas Hall. What did McCown see in his time here? What does he see from across the field?
I don’t think I’d hire him right now — the Bears need more certainty at the position — but McCown is the kind of coach who could be both an offensive guru and a leader of men. It’s something to consider.
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And that brings us to the Bears’ interim coach, Thomas Brown, who has an interesting story of his own.
Bears fans might say the sad state of their team influences them to drown their sorrows in booze and unhealthy food, but for Brown, his quick ascent from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator to head coach has had the opposite approach.
“I was trying to go on a weight-loss journey about 20 days ago, and I couldn’t lose weight,” he told reporters Wednesday. “At all. I was about 225 the morning of the announcement of being the OC. This morning I was 203.”
Between the hours spent sitting and contemplating how a franchise can be this bad, the unhealthy press box food and TV reporter Dionne Miller’s baked goods in the Halas Hall media room, most reporters seem to gain weight covering the Bears. I guess we found the key to weight loss: coaching the Bears.
Brown claims it’s not because of the stress that inherently comes with this particular job.
“I think stress can help out,” he said. “I’m not really stressed but it’s more … what I realized is if you increase tasks to your day, you forget about food. I went a couple days and just really didn’t eat. Didn’t really think about it. Wasn’t hungry. I was thinking about the next moment, what to say to this player, doing game planning and I look up and I’m almost 30 pounds down. So we’ll keep going, see how long it lasts.”
Since gaining podium status with the dismissal of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, Brown has won our favor as the most verbally engaging Bears coach since former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. I can see why players rave about his presence.
Thomas Brown, leader of men.pic.twitter.com/Pi3FNRzvq2
— Dave (@dave_bfr) December 2, 2024
So while his charm offensive is working, what about the offense that actually matters?
Williams and Co. have shown some major improvements over the last three games, but the Bears still haven’t scored enough points and haven’t won a game. The losing streak is six and counting.
So while I’d slow the brakes on the Brown hype train, I will amend something I wrote earlier this week when I declared the Bears should limit Brown to a cursory interview. Warren and Poles should keep an open mind about Brown’s candidacy as head coach. See if he has the chops to lead a team and make it successful.
Sunday in San Francisco is his first shot. Eberflus went his entire Bears run without a road win on a Sunday (though he’d argue that beating Jacksonville as the home team in London should count). It’s a preposterous stat but it’s true. The Bears haven’t won a Sunday road game since Dec. 26, 2021, when Matt Nagy was still the coach
Like Brown, the Bears should go in hungry to San Francisco. Who knows what it will lead to?
(Photo of Brian Flores: David Berding / Getty Images)
