Bear Digest

Bears Can't Go Wrong with Proven Success

One most obvious candidate needs to be near the top of every short list because they don't simply hand out Lombardi Trophies.

Gene Chamberlain

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The logic behind hiring Josh McDaniels as Bears head coach after change hits Halas Hall has been discussed here in the past.

He is the best possible candidate.

McDaniels has head coaching experience, comes from a highly successful organization, rates among the league's best coordinators for working with young quarterbacks based on Mac Jones' rookie success, and has his own very effective offense which has won multiple Super Bowls.

It's important, if the Bears are going the offensive route for their next head coach, to find a coordinator who has run his own offense and not simply someone else's. 

Coordinators like Eric Bieniemy and Kellen Moore are overseeing someone else's show. You have to worry when they're no longer under the blanket of their mentor,  just like the Bears found with Nagy.

If they have play-calling experience it's a huge plus, but it doesn't have to be extensive. Matt LaFleur's play-calling experience was limited before going to Green Bay. If it's their own offense, though, then they're at an entirely different level. 

However, there is another situation as good or very similar to McDaniels in this hunt. He is a former head coach who has won a Super Bowl, has experienced little failure and is young enough not to be another John Fox babbling about his dead monkey.

This coach even has the added plus of being unemployed now so there are no hurdles to interviewing him. Obviously this is former Eagles coach Doug Pederson, and the Jacksonville Jaguars already have a head start here because they already spoke to him.

Eagles GM Howie Roseman decided on a reboot after three playoff berths in five years, and a Lombardi Trophy. But there was great discord between Pederson and the Eagles, some of it revolving around interference with what Pederson deemed his right to pick his own assistant coaches, Frank Reich in particular.

All of that is irrelevant now. If Pederson had been in Chicago with three playoff berths and a Lombardi Trophy in five years he would be untouchable for at least 10 years.

Pederson comes with the Andy Reid offense like Matt Nagy did, and that might not be a plus to some Bears fans. The difference here is Pederson actually knows how to apply the offense and has a trophy to prove it.

Pederson is not Bieniemy, who is merely coordinating Reid's offense, or Byron Leftwich, who is a mere extension of Bruce Arians.

The Bears own a double-doink loss to remember Pederson's coaching ability. The Eagles produced just enough points with a backup quarterback to beat the best defense in the league on that January 6 night at Soldier Field in 2019.

Pederson is only going to be 54 when the next football season gets underway. He's not Pete Carroll, who is in his 70s and should not coach another team after he leaves or is booted out of Seattle.

The Bears do have some talent in place as two playoff berths in four seasons and a winning record under Nagy show. They need someone who can mold it far more than they need someone to take over a gutted roster and grow it from nothing over three or four years like needs to be done with Detroit, the Jets or Jacksonville.

The best thing about Pederson is he has already done exactly what needs to be done in Chicago.

Pederson in Philadelphia took over a team Chip Kelly had in the playoffs two straight years before he suffered a losing 2015 season and got fired. Pederson then had the Eagles holding a Lombardi Trophy within two years and did it using both a backup quarterback and a young quarterback in Carson Wentz. It was the first of three straight playoff berths and four playoff wins.

The only way the Bears could find a better coaching candidate would be to hire McDaniels, the brilliant offensive mind who also has proven ability to turn a young quarterback into an instant success.

They need someone who also can assemble and deploy an offense and call plays in a way Nagy never could.

Because both can do this and have the wide-ranging experience to prove it, McDaniels and Pederson need to top any short list the Bears compile.

They won't be alone, but such list should start with them.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.

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