Because they can’t win, the Bears cannot win.
Maybe if the Bears start to win, they could win, but until then, they will continue to lose.
After a season dominated by a 10-game losing streak, the in-season firing of a head coach for the first time, the departure of both coordinators (including head coach Matt Eberflus) and a corresponding amount of chaotic noise around the organization, the Bears haven’t exactly engendered much public support in the week since a surprise victory in Green Bay.
As of this writing, the Bears — in limbo between coaches, halfway from failure to hope — are actually losing without playing, which is as regular of an occurrence for them as losing while playing.
That is why no one has faith that they will get it right with the head-coaching search and the rebuilding of a team that was supposedly ready to win. That’s why they’re getting nitpicked by every sportswriter, sports radio host, Bears fan and Chicagoland father-in-law with 40 years of business experience who could tell them a thing or two.
Led by a hiring committee of shaky GM Ryan Poles and blustery team president Kevin Warren, the Bears are now interviewing too many coaches (I believe the list just expanded to include Ed “Straight Arrow” Gennero from the movie “Necessary Roughness” and former Cubs/White Sox manager Rick Renteria). The way they’re interviewing them — over Zoom — is all wrong too. And don’t get me started by how many people they have on the hiring committee.
“I’m not sure if they’re conducting a job search or playing darts at Halas Hall.”
The Bears add another name to their lengthy head coaching candidacy list.@ruthiepolinsky | @DavidHaugh | #BigPFBShow pic.twitter.com/kGQHLqe1hi
— Bears on CHSN (@CHSN_Bears) January 13, 2025
Where a winning franchise would be looked at as being deliberative and thorough in trying to find the right coach, the Bears are being mocked for being scatterbrained and you know what? They deserve the scorn. You just can’t give this franchise the benefit of the doubt. It hasn’t earned it. Not in the short or long term.
You won’t find me defending them, that’s for sure. But I can say the franchise’s problems aren’t that the Bears are cheap or that team chairman George McCaskey doesn’t care about winning.
They will spend money and they want to win. The problem is they don’t know who to spend money on or how to win. These are what you’d call foundational issues. The Bears should be sponsored by Hanlon’s Razor, which reminds us to “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Everything wrong with the franchise stems from the fact that McCaskey doesn’t know what he’s doing as chairman, and because of that, the organization empowers people who continually make the kinds of important decisions that set an NFL franchise back instead of moving it forward.
While the Dave McGinnis debacle in 1999 still gets referenced as the height of Bears hiring tomfoolery, the current context for our overall cynicism stems from the team’s incessant losing, on and off the field, since McCaskey took over as the team’s chairman in 2011.
The Bears’ fortunes have tumbled in conjunction with his promotion and so, too, has the team’s already-shaky reputation in the city and across the league. Even with the benefit of a promising rookie quarterback in Caleb Williams, why would anyone believe in this organization?
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“Well, the idea is to get it right,” McCaskey said at an end-of-season availability. “As I said, Bears fans deserve a winner. And we’re going to do everything we can. I think with Ryan’s leadership and the process that he has outlined and with guidance from Kevin, Ryan is going to make the best decision going forward.”
But, again, why would they get it right this time around when they’ve gotten it wrong so often? McCaskey hired Poles who hired Matt Eberflus. Poles let Eberflus hire Shane Waldron to be Williams’ first offensive coordinator. Neither lasted the entirety of Williams’ rookie season. Poles could be entering the last season of his contract, but no one will say.
“Well, Ryan has the benefit of his experience,” McCaskey said. “And he has the benefit of the guidance from Kevin, who has been through this process before. So we’re hoping for a better result.”
So, cross your fingers, then?
Warren’s main job is getting a stadium built and he’s having enough issues with that, let alone hiring a coach. But he’s confident shovels will hit the ground as a new coach helps Williams take off.
Again, cross your fingers.
Whenever someone new comes in, they scoff at our earned skepticism. And then they learn.
“The history’s the history,” Poles said of the team’s perennial quarterback issues last April. “I’m kind of done talking about it. You go back so much all the time, and those days are over.”
And yet, despite a pretty good year from Williams, the bad old days didn’t quite end. With Jayden Daniels starring for Washington, even the Bears’ supposed slam-dunk pick of Williams is being second-guessed.
The Bears’ present was supposed to change with the arrival of the young quarterback because he was a sure thing joining a team poised for change. That the team’s fortunes turned out even worse than the low standards of “normal” has Chicago back in its usual winter doldrums.
This past year’s disaster, going from 4-2 at the bye week to 5-12, has reinforced the notion that, like a disposable character in a horror movie, this franchise can’t escape its fate. Williams managed to finish the season with his dignity intact, if not his national reputation.
There are inarguable reasons why few, if any, trust that the Bears will make the right coaching hire, even as it seems like Ben Johnson, the hot offensive coordinator du jour, is aligned for the hiring.
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Mike McCarthy in, Mike Vrabel out: What’s next for Bears’ coaching search?
With Mike Vrabel officially in New England — yes, the Bears should have interviewed him in person, but it wouldn’t have made a difference — Johnson and the Bears make the most sense. If they get him, I promise I will be positive about it and I won’t even rip the move if it goes south. The fit is there. I think Johnson is ready. I’d like to see it happen.
Johnson has already interviewed and is now off that circuit for the rest of Detroit’s playoff run. If the Lions’ run goes through the Super Bowl and Johnson is hired afterward, no one will care about how the other candidates the Bears interviewed and the time they wasted.
Could Mike McCarthy be a good fit as head coach of the Bears? @billbarnwell makes the case:
“Having an offense that has structure, that has guardrails, is exactly what [Caleb Williams] needs. Mike McCarthy can provide that.” pic.twitter.com/QuW0yzKU2e
— Around the Horn (@AroundtheHorn) January 7, 2025
But what if they don’t hire Johnson?
The Bears’ insistence on not learning from their past is why their fans are scared about the free agency of Mike McCarthy, late of the Dallas Cowboys, who would probably be the best Bears coach since Mike Ditka. Is McCarthy a proven, successful coach (174-112-2 record with 12 playoff appearances and one Super Bowl win in 18 years with Green Bay and Dallas) or just an ordinary, past-his-prime guy propped up by good players?
If he winds up somewhere else, he’s the former. If he’s hired by the Bears, it’ll surely be the latter.
One thing I’ve learned in 16 years covering the Bears: You rarely can go wrong by expecting the worst.
(Photo of Mike McCarthy: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
