Chicago Bears Coaching Search: One Burning Question for Every Top Contender
The Bears' brass can't let their potential new head coach complete their job interview unless they answer these tough queries.
IT NEVER HURTS to ask.
Granted, just because you ask doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer. But if you don’t ask at all, you’ll have zero chance of learning anything.
The Chicago Bears are about to drop a ton of cheddar on a new head coach, and if you’re going to pay somebody, say, $4 million a year for three years (or, probably in the case of Ben Johnson, $6 million a year for four years), you should be able to ask them whatever you damn well please during their job interview, no matter how uncomfortable that question may be.
The Bears are eyeballing several candidates, all of whom come with, well, not baggage so much as concerns. Here’s what I’d ask if I were in the interview room alongside GM Ryan Poles and his gaggle of henchmen:
(Note: This list is limited to candidates with whom the Bears have either scheduled or requested interviews.)
I’d ask Joe Brady, “What role did you play in making Josh Allen so gosh darn good at football?”
Brady has been calling plays in Buffalo for a season and a half, a stretch during which the Bills have kept winning at a pace similar to that of their previous four seasons. The primary cog in the Bills’ machine, of course, is Josh Allen, but the quarterback was a fully-formed product by the time Brady came into the game-planning picture.
Considering Josh was already Josh when he took over the headphones, Brady will need to explain to the Bears bean-counters how he’ll be able to turn Caleb Williams into Josh.
I’d ask Thomas Brown, “What did you do during your five weeks as interim head coach to merit becoming our full-timer?”
His players love him. The media loves him. But the scoreboard doesn’t.
Brown won just one of the five games in which he was running the joint, games that were marred by clock mismanagement, questionable personnel choices, and thousands upon thousands of screen passes. At least on the field, there was little to demonstrate that Brown has the chops to navigate this team to the Promised Land.
If he can somehow convince Poles et al that he can do the job, he probably should get the job.
I’d ask Pete Carroll, “Why?”
Ageism is the worst, and this question isn’t about the fact that Carroll is 73, but rather about his desire and motives.
The 2014 Super Bowl winner currently has a cushy job as an advisor in the Seattle Seahawks front office, a gig that probably requires a relatively small time commitment and earns him some nice coin.
From the outside, the Seahawks seem like a stable, drama-free franchise, while the Bears are, oh, let’s go with misguided. Swapping a relaxing, lucrative gig with a bunch of chill people for a stress-filled cauldron in a city that’s predisposed to be disappointed with you seems, oh, let’s go with misguided.
I’d ask Brian Flores, “What’s the deal with you and quarterbacks?”
"To put it in the simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this. And then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'Dude, you are the best fit for this. You're accurate. You're the best whatever, you're this, you're that.' How would it make you feel listening to one or the other?"
So said Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa about his beef with Flores, a beef that played a role in Flores’ Miami ouster.
Maybe Flores regularly pooped on his field general. Maybe Tua was being overly sensitive. Either way, the Bears need to make certain that Flores will treat Caleb Williams in a professional manner — or, at the very least, he won’t tell the soon-to-be-sophomore QB that he sucks.
I’d ask Aaron Glenn, “Do you think our roster has the defensive horses?”
When the 2024 Detroit Lions defense was healthy, it was scary.
When the 2024 Detroit Lions defense was banged-up, they allowed 4,314 points a game. Give or take.
The question them becomes, can Glenn make it work with a unit that’s not loaded with playmakers?
Personnel-wise, the 2025 Chicago Bears D won’t look that much different than the 2024 edition, as their highest-priced pieces (Jaylon Johnson, Montez Sweat, Tremaine Edmunds, Kevin Byard, T.J. Edwards) are all under contract through at least the 2026 season, so Glenn would be walking into a WYSIWYG situation.
What we saw on the defensive side of the ball over the second half of the 2024 season here in Chicago wasn’t great, so can Glenn turn around an underachieving, patchwork unit, and if so, how? I’m sure Poles et al would love to find out.
I’d ask Ben Johnson, “Why would you want to leave a thriving Detroit team to come here?”
As of this writing, virtually every major sportsbook lists the Lions as favorites to win Super Bowl LIX, the primary reason being that they’re an offensive juggernaut — a juggernaut that, since 2022, was built slowly and steadily by Johnson.
With a roster sporting an average age of 25.5, the Lions are the 11th-youngest team in the NFL, while the Bears sit at 27.2, making them the 10th oldest. The Lions are on an upward trajectory, winning arguably the best division in football, while Chicago is thisclose to being considered a rebuilding team. Money and power aside, how is that a logical move for Johnson?
(FWIW, in the coaching world of professional sports, money and power rules all, with winning a semi-close second. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.)
I’d ask Mike Kafka, “Dude, who’re you?”
At his postseason press conference, Poles said, “There’s [sic] going to be some names that you don’t expect, that will surprise you.”
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mike Kafka.
The New York Giants’ offensive coordinator hasn’t been on anybody’s radar, but Poles must see something he likes…maybe.
Da Bears Blog’s Jeff Hughes feels that Kafka isn’t really a candidate, that Poles is doing his old buddy a favor:
“I saw a lot of fans getting worked up over this interview. But sometimes personnel guys give their friends head coaching interviews to raise their profiles. That’s what is happening here.”
Then again, this is the kind of oddball, out-of-nowhere candidate that seems on-brand for Poles. (Shane Waldron, anybody?) If this isn’t a nepotism thing, the search committee needs to bombard Kafka with question after question after question.
I’d ask Todd Monken, “Can you bring Lamar Jackson with you?”
The 2024 Baltimore Ravens boasted the league’s best offense, but how much of a role did their offensive coordinator play? After all, their QB Lamar Jackson could lead his team to a 35-point game with a scheme drawn up by my 11-year-old football-hating daughter.
Monken’s been on the job in Charm City for just two seasons, and Jackson had been really freakin’ good for seven, so it’s up for debate as to whether Monken made magic, or if the magic was already baked into the Ravens’ DNA.
Team Poles needs to find out what magic Monken will use to turn Caleb Williams into a Lamar-level talent…or if he even has that kind of magic in his hat.
I’d ask Drew Petzing, “Can you make Caleb Williams better than Kyler Murray?”
Another surprise name on the list, Petzing is a journeyman who, over the last decade, has played various offensive assistant roles with Cleveland and Minnesota, before taking on Arizona’s OC gig in 2023.
Under Petzing, Kyler Murray has posted a win/loss record of 11-14, and his only statistical career-best during that stretch was that of passing success rate in 2024.
Petzing hasn’t elevated the offense or his quarterback, so Poles will need to learn how he can (or if he can) do just that.
I’d ask Arthur Smith, “How would you make Chicago’s blah offense better than Pittsburgh’s semi-blah offense?”
With Arthur Smith calling plays for Russell Wilson and/or Justin Fields, the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers finished ranked 23rd in total yards and 16th in points scored, not the kind of numbers that would help an offensively-challenged team like the Bears leapfrog high-octane division-mates Detroit, Minnesota, and Green Bay.
Smith’s track record as a head coach also isn’t super-inspiring, with a regular season tally in Atlanta of 21-30, and a playoff record of 0-0.
If he couldn’t get it done with the Falcons or the Steelers, how can he convince Poles that he can get it done in Chicago?
I’d ask Mike Vrabel, “Why couldn’t you get over the hump in Tennessee?”
Vrabel is arguably the hottest figure in the 2024 coaching cycle…but why?
His 54-45 regular season record in Tennessee is good, but not great, and his 2-3 postseason record is straight-up meh.
Admittedly, in 2021 — his final above-.500 season with the Titans — he put together a 12-5 record with the eminently average Ryan Tannehill behind center, but he was one-and-done in the playoffs.
Sure, Vrabel fits the “leader of men” criteria that seems so important to Chicago’s front office. but does he fit the “Guys, let’s win a Super Bowl" criteria? Convince us, Big Mike.
I’d ask Anthony Weaver, “Has anybody else expressed interest in hiring you as head coach?”
When Weaver’s name fell into the mix earlier this week, I got a little salty on the Twitters:
Okay, that’s not really fair on my part — I hadn’t done a deep dive on Weaver before posting that little gem — but after a shallow dive, I can fairly report that this one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Weaver doesn’t have the head coaching experience (D-line coach for the New York Jets, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Houston, Texans DC in 2020, multiple defensive coaching roles in Baltimore between 2021-23, hired as Miami DC in 2024) or the cachet to own the locker room on day one — which is why he’s not one of the hot names on the league-wide coaching carousel.
But Chicago’s often-contrarian GM likes to go against the grain, and Weaver would seem to be the perfect Poles hire.
That said, the perfect reality hire would be Ben Johnson. Fingers crossed.