Imagine Bears with Dan Quinn as Coach

Analysis: It's easy to second-guess Ryan Poles now when Dan Quinn was a finalist to be Bears head coach

It's easy to wonder what could have happened if the Bears had made a different choice at head coach.

The call on Matt Eberflus was up to Ryan Poles after he'd been hired, but the Bears hiring duo of George McCaskey and Bill Polian had made Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn one of their three finalists before Poles was named as GM. So in essence, Poles got to decide between Eberflus, former Lions/Colts coach Jim Caldwell and Quinn.

Right now Quinn would have to rate as one of the hottest head coaching prospects in the league and Poles looks like he made the wrong choice.

Quinn coached Atlanta and his Falcons reached the Super Bowl, before blowing a 28-3 lead against Tom Brady and the Patriots. He was in charge of the Seahawks defense when they won and lost a Super Bowl.

In Dallas, Quinn's defenses went from 19th, to 12th last year and this year are tearing up the league, No. 1 overall and against the pass, although losing cornerback Trevon Diggs to an ACL injury could impact that going forward. They are also No. 1 in turnover percentage while the Bears are still awaiting their first takeaway of the year in a scheme that is supposed to produce more takeaways.

Dallas' defense has been so dominant that if you look at a list of point producers for a standard fantasy football league through two weeks they are No. 1 overall.

That's not No. 1 for team defenses, it's No. 1 ahead of all the individual players on offenses, with 52 points produced. The next-highest team defense is Pittsburgh and there are also 31 individual offensive players ahead of the Steelers team defense at 30 points. Kirk Cousins, with 46 fantasy points, and Tyreek Hill with 43.5 are the next highest according to Fantasypros.com.

It definitely helps having a player like Michah Parsons, with 29 1/2 career sacks and seven forced fumbles in 35 games. As much as analytics experts like Pro Football Focus love to tout the importance of pass coverage over pass rush, it's much more difficult to have pass coverage without any pass rush and easier to have better coverage because of the heat the pressure causes.

The Bears are good evidence of this with their one sack on the season and 21 in 20 games since Eberflus became coach.

Whether Quinn would have had the quality of players he has in Dallas on the defensive side is open to debate with Poles as GM and not the Jerry Jones/Will McClay combo.

Quinn actually had interviewed with Denver, Minnesota, Miami and the New York Giants without being hired and reportedly withdrew his name from consideration with the Bears after being one of the three finalists, although it's unclear whether it was after he became aware Poles had decided on Eberflus.

Either way, it's logical to wonder where the Bears would be right now if the choice had been Quinn instead of Eberflus, who had never been a head coach at any level and was a defensive coordinator in the NFL for four years. Eberflus pointed out this week he has been a defensive signal caller for 12 years, but eight of those came in college football at Missouri.

Quinn has worked for Mike McCarthy, Pete Carroll, Dennis Erickson, Eric Mangini, Steve Mariucci, Jim Mora and Nick Saban, and has had Dirk Koetter, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, Mike Mularkey, Terry Robiskie and Kyle Shanahan working under him in the past.

Bears Coaches Winning Percentages

Ralph Jones 1930-32 24-10-7 .671

George Halas 1920-29, 1933-42, 1956-55, 1958-67 316-148-31 .670

Mike Ditka 1982-92 106-62 .631

Paddy Driscoll 1956-57 14-9-1 .604

Hunk Anderson 1943-45 17-11-2 .600

Lovie Smith 2004-12 81-63 .563

Matt Nagy 2018-21 34-31 .523

Jack Pardee 1975-77 20-22 .476

Neill Armstrong 1978-81 30-34 .469

Dick Jauron 1999-2003 35-45 .438

Dave Wannstedt 1993-98 40-56 .417

Marc Trestman 2013-14 13-19 .406

Jim Dooley 1968-71 20-36 .357

John Fox 2015-17 14-34 .292

Abe Gibron 1972-74 11-30-1 .274

Matt Eberflus 2022-23 3-16 .158

Dan Quinn as Atlanta Head Coach

2015 8-8

2016 11-5*

2017 10-6**

2018 7-9

2019 7-9

2020 0-5

Record 43-42

*Lost in Super Bowl

*Lost in divisional playoff game.

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