Bear Digest

Names for Bears to Consider If They're Serious About Pete Carroll

Analysis: The reports by ESPN and Albert Breer saying there could be mutual interest in an interview by the Bears with Pete Carroll opens up a whole new dimension of possibilities.

Gene Chamberlain

Maybe the Bears could hire Dave McGinnis to be head coach since they failed doing it once before and he's Pete Carroll's age.
Maybe the Bears could hire Dave McGinnis to be head coach since they failed doing it once before and he's Pete Carroll's age. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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"Hey old guys!"

- Will Smith yelling in 'Men in Black"

There's no sense crossing anyone's name off of anyone's list for the next Bears coach at this point as they have yet to interview a person or even have their list reported.

Wait about a week and a half and things will really begin to take shape beyond a person with knowledge saying someone might be interested in talking to someone's agent about something somehow related to a certain team that plays by a certain lake in a certain city.

Still, there is this idea being batted about that the Bears might want to talk with former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. This came from an ESPN report initially by Adam Schefter saying Carroll had interest in the Bears.

During the Bears-Seahawks game Thursday night on Prime, SI.com's Albert Breer took the report one step further.

He said about Carroll "...I'm told that the Bears are interested in sitting down and having a conversation about their opening."

This should be taken seriously because Carroll is not someone bound to the parameters of the NFL schedule. He could sit down and talk to the Bears tomorrow if he wanted.

That is, if they want to hire a 73-year-old coach who had one playoff win after 2016. 

If this is truly the case, and the Bears are really going to consider people who are senior advisor or network pregame show analyst types as 70-something, then it could open an entirely new page up for this coaching search.

The geezer grouping could be a bunch of former coaches who want back in, so to speak.

If this really was the case, and they wanted to seriously consider Carroll, then they should have been aggressive in talking to Bill Belichick because he had a lot more success than Carroll and had it more recently than Carroll won his lone Super Bowl. Belichick won one in 2019 and won six as a head coach. Carroll won once, in 2013.  

If this truly is the route the Bears want to go, and hire guys who could be grandfather or great-grandfather of some of the players in his locker room, then here are names they really need to consider.

1. Bruce Arians

He's retired and 72. So what. They should have hired him in 2013 but George McCaskey's guy, Phil Emery, hired Marc Trestman over him and Arians built a Super Bowl team in Arizona, then won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. The report by Breer came with the opinion they would want a leader type who was on offense. Arians definitely could be that type in a few different ways. Arians had retired partly because he found standing difficult after Achilles surgery but that was a few years ago now. He's healthier. This is an offensive coach and leader who could forge a good relationship with Caleb Williams and build a real offense that doesn't squander time and finish games with a timeout in their back pocket.

2. Bill Cowher

A Super Bowl winner with the Steelers, he's younger than Carroll at 67 as he retired from coaching at a young age, in his 40s. Every year for about five to 10 years there were rumors he'd come out of retirement and his analyst job with CBS for a coaching job. The Bears had been the subject of those rumors a couple of different times. There's no real reason to think Cowher wants back in now but eight division titles, 10 playoff appearances, two Super Bowls and six AFC title games say he could find a way to quickly get back into the swing of things with one of the league's oldest franchises.

3. Jon Gruden

He's still relatively young at 61 and is only out of coaching because of the scandal in which it was reported he had sent out racist and homophobic emails. He did get back in as an advisor or consultant with the Saints. A Super Bowl champ in 2002 with Tampa Bay, Gruden over four years had finally gotten the Raiders just over .500 when he got fired. What about those emails? People have been forgiven for far worse transgressions than emails. As Ghandi said, "Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." The man lost his job and hasn't been a coach for over three years. That's like a prison sentence for coaches who love the game. He wouldn't be an ideal choice but he does have offensive background and has always had a great rapport with quarterbacks.

4. Nick Saban

The Bears tried to hire him in 2004 but were rejected and wound up choosing between Russ Grimm and Lovie Smith. Saban built a college dynasty and has seven national titles but did have two seasons in the NFL when he wound up in Miami the year after he interviewed with the Bears. His Dolphins teams went 9-7, 6-10 and he went to Alabama. He's definitely learned some things about coaching and life since then. How would he do with another go-around in the NFL, this time at Halas Hall at the same age Carroll is?

5. Ron Rivera

People are still holding his departure in Washington against him and the Commanders were a rather inept team his last year when he was fired but the entire organization was crumbling already when he was brought there. He probably should have been given a commendation for going 26-40 in his four seasons with the Daniel Snyder cloud hanging over everything. He was a coordinator and player in Chicago for both of its Super Bowls appearances. Why not head coach for another one? Pro Football Hall of Fame writer Dan Pompei recently offered up Rivera's name as a possibility.

6. Jim Caldwell

He's 69 and a senior assistant with the Panthers, former coach of the Colts and Lions and a finalist for the Bears job in 2022 when they hired Matt Eberflus. Coached against the Bears in the Super Bowl as Peyton Manning's QB coach with the Colts and was offensive coordinator for the Ravens when they won the Super Bowl. He had a winning record in five of his seven seasons as a coach.

7. Dave Wannstedt

Anyone for seconds? Wanny is a year younger than Carroll and suddenly a beloved media star in Chicago when no one would have ever suggested this possible while he was coaching the Bears from 1993-98 as Michael McCaskey's hire after he decided to fire Mike Ditka. Wanny made a pretty decent coach once he got out of Chicago, posting winning seasons four straight years after he took over the Dolphins from Jimmy Johnson, before a 1-8 start cost him his job in his fifth Miami season.

8. Dave McGinnis

Michael McCaskey couldn't hire him the proper way and he left town without a contract. Maybe George could make up for it and bring him back at exactly the same age as Carroll. This time they wouldn't need to send poor Ted Phillips up in front of the TV cameras to explain their mistake. McGinnis is a radio announcer for the Tennessee Titans now after his coaching career ended.

9. Lovie Smith

Lovie could take over this current Bears defense in the scheme they play and probably not miss a beat. It's his scheme. He's a spry 66 although that beard makes him look 20 years older. The trouble is Lovie was a head coach seven years at Illinois and in the NFL after the Bears fired him with a 10-6 record in 2012, and he never posted another winning record at any level. He did get the Bears the chance to draft Caleb Williams, though.

10. Marv Levy

Chicago's very own, the South Shore High product and former Bills coach turns 100 in August and always had that infectious positive attitude that would work well at Halas Hall.

Marv Levy with his QB, Jim Kelly, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies in Canton, Ohio.
Marv Levy with his QB, Jim Kelly, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies in Canton, Ohio. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.