Top Candidates for Bears’ Head Coaching Job

The Chicago Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Friday, the morning after another disastrous late-game scenario. Eberflus’ tenure will be unique because the Bears seemed so close to knocking off top-level opponents if it weren’t for moments—Hail Marys, missed timeouts, mismatches, clueless quarterbacks, blocked kicks—that would have served as memorable one-time outliers in the lives of some franchises. Instead, those moments had become the defining narrative of the Bears between 2022 and Thanksgiving ’24. A weekly roller coaster ride turned into a haunted house.

Instead of digging back through these cases, we are now looking forward. Thomas Brown is the team’s interim head coach. Brown, a former Sean McVay lieutenant, sparked something in Caleb Williams after the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron a few weeks ago. We wrote about Brown as a future head coach two years agobefore becoming the offensive coordinator of an ill-fated staff assembled by Frank Reich in Carolina to coach Bryce Young. The son of a pastor, Brown is a dynamic speaker who can command a room, according to those who know him well. He has previously interviewed for head coaching jobs and received positive grades from those opportunities.

Considering we liked Brown two years ago, I’m certainly not discounting the possibility that he could seize the situation and wedge his way into the conversation. The current Bears power structure has a lot of coaches they like on staff, including highly regarded special teams coordinator Richard Hightower. I assume the move to promote Brown was made deliberately, giving him the chance to run the operation for the team’s final five games.

I don’t think the Bears would have made this move if they weren’t at least curious. Again, Hightower would have been the obvious choice because it would have allowed both sides of the ball to remain fairly stable. Brown will now be pulled away from the offensive meeting room, which, as we saw with New York Jets interim Jeff Ulbrich, complicates his ability to focus on a unit that showed some promise. The possible benefit of him sweeping a room off his feet is worth investigating.

If it’s not brown? Here are a few options. After completing the 2024-2025 version of my annual list of future head coaches, these would be my recommendations, ranging from the obvious to some more wildcard picks. If you’d like to see the full list, including my top 27 names I expect to interview this cycle, click here.

For my short list:

The Detroit Lions offensive coordinator is admittedly selective, and given his affinity for Dan Campbell, I wonder if he would take a job in the NFC North. But to summarize the thoughts of an industry source I spoke with Friday morning: Johnson may end up waiting forever for this supposed dream job. The Bears check a lot of boxes on anyone’s list: a franchise that is relatively patient (Eberflus got two-plus years and Matt Nagy got four seasons before that), has the quarterback of the future and some veteran playmakers who can provide instant success. If Eberflus’ tenure taught us anything, it’s that this team isn’t far away.

Outside of Johnson, Flores has been the most dominant coordinator this season, building a Vikings defense from scratch while the team let go of more expensive veterans. Flores replaced key players with other names like Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman. Unlike other Bill Belichick protégés, Flores has been able to emulate the legendary head coach’s true secret sauce: an amoebic defense built on trust; a group of players learned well enough to think and act on their own. According to those familiar with DC, he learned a lot from his previous stint as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and given that he coached under some wildly unique circumstances, his tenure is worth looking back on for reconsideration. Along with a strong offensive coordinator, Flores will be a top candidate on the market. Mike Tomlin, who coached with Flores in Pittsburgh the year after Flores left the Dolphins, told me, “I feel the same way about him as I did about Raheem Morris when I was talking to people about (Morris’s) candidacy. I thought that Raheem was the best coaching candidate in the world without a head coaching job and I feel the same way about Flo in this cycle.”

In January 2023, Kliff interviewed Kingsbury for the Bears’ offensive coordinator job, though that meeting certainly could have served a dual purpose since Kingsbury worked closely with Caleb Williams at USC and the Bears planned to draft the No. 1. Still, Williams will be at the heart of this decision, and Kingsbury has one of the most defined relationships with the quarterback in this carousel. While his tenure with the Arizona Cardinals yielded just one playoff appearance and no wins, he made it to a second contract and fielded a talented staff, including Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator. Staff who worked with Kingsbury in Arizona found him pliable when it came to changing his Air Raid tendencies for the NFL, combining it with a more McVay-style Rams offense.

Kingsbury has been integral behind the scenes in preparing Jayden Daniels for the big stage. Daniels’ play has declined of late, though the Commanders have had to adjust their play calling to accommodate Daniels’ rib injury.

Slowik was red hot at the end of last year’s cycle, interviewing well with the Commanders and Atlanta Falcons. Although this year’s Texans team is grinding through some personnel-related struggles, Slowik spearheaded CJ Stroud’s Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign a year ago and has a strong background in the Kyle Shanahan tree. Kyle’s father, Mike, told me about Slowik, “When Kyle got a job in San Francisco, I said, You better call Bobby. He got Bobby for a few years on the defensive side of the football, then moved him over to the offensive side. He was the perfect guy for Kyle. It was a great situation for everyone.

“Bobby knows football extremely well,” Shanahan continued. “He’s a great person. Very smart. He knows the staff as well as anybody. He’s studied both sides of the football and if you ever talk to him you can tell how sharp and on top he is.”

Starting his career on defense has given Slowik a lot of schematic advantages. His proximity to Shanahan coaches as well as coaches on Houston’s defensive staff under DeMeco Ryans and his work with Stroud in 2023 make him a must-interview.

Smith interviewed for the Carolina Panthers’ head coaching vacancy this offseason. What sets him apart is that his interpersonal skills are probably the most revered of any trainer on this list. Smith’s ability to make those around him feel comfortable and valued has been discussed by many of his former players and his hybrid background on the offensive line and as coordinator under Mike McDaniel has only enhanced his candidacy in my opinion.

Even before Brian Callahan left to take the Tennessee Titans head coaching job, there was buzz about Pitcher, who has been Joe Burrow’s position coach since Burrow was drafted and now coordinates an offense that has been among the best in the NFL over the past four weeks . It’s important to separate Cincinnati’s offensive performance from their defensive personnel issues as the organization makes a quarterback-driven decision. Pitcher was a collegiate quarterback at Colgate and SUNY Cortland, has experience coaching the No. 1 pick and, while unfamiliar with the Bears, has experience navigating a similarly constructed roster.

While the Coach of the Year winner has an established track record and must be valued in Cleveland, could the Browns part with Stefanski for some draft capital? Especially if the team is desperately trying a Hail Mary to figure it out with Deshaun Watson? Stefanski’s quarterback skills are widely accepted, and he has intimate knowledge of the division after spending the majority of his career with the Vikings. This would be a home run for the Bears and take some of the guesswork out of a critical hire.