Top Candidates for Bears’ Head Coaching Job

Chicago shouldn’t rule out interim Thomas Brown. Plus, Ben Johnson, Brian Flores and Kliff Kingsbury could be in the running to take over for Matt Eberflus.

Johnson could be one of several candidates to replace Eberflus in Chicago. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Top Bears coaching candidates

1. Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator, Detroit Lions
2. Brian Flores, defensive coordinator, Minnesota Vikings
3. Kliff Kingsbury, offensive coordinator, Washington Commanders
4. Bobby Slowik, offensive coordinator, Houston Texans
5. Frank Smith, offensive coordinator, Miami Dolphins
6. Dan Pitcher, offensive coordinator, Cincinnati Bengals
7. Ask the Browns about Kevin Stefanski

The Chicago Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Friday, the morning after yet another catastrophic end-of-game scenario. Eberflus’s tenure will be unique in that the Bears seemed so close to knocking off top-tier opponents had it not been for moments—Hail Marys, missed timeouts, odd alignments, unaware quarterbacks, blocked kicks—that would have served as memorable, once-in-a-lifetime outliers for some franchises. Instead, those moments had become the defining narrative of the Bears between 2022 and Thanksgiving of ’24. A weekly rollercoaster ride turned haunted house. 

In lieu of digging back through these instances, we’re now looking ahead. 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 couple weeks ago. We wrote about Brown as a prospective head coach two years ago, before he became the offensive coordinator of an ill-fated staff assembled by Frank Reich in Carolina to coach Bryce Young. Brown is the son of a pastor and, according to those who know him well, is a dynamic speaker who can command a room. He has interviewed for head coaching jobs in the past and has received positive marks from those opportunities. 

Given that we liked Brown two years ago, I’m certainly not ruling out the possibility that he could gain hold of the situation and wedge his way into the conversation. The current Bears power structure has a lot of coaches they hold dear on staff, including the highly regarded special teams coordinator Richard Hightower. I’m assuming that the move to promote Brown was done 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 somewhat 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 was showing some promise. The possible advantage of him sweeping a room off its feet is worth exploring. 

If it’s not Brown? Here are a few options. After completing the 2024–25 version of my annual future head coaches list, these would be my recommendations, ranging from the obvious to some more wild-card choices. If you’d like to take a look at the entire list, including my top 27 names that I am projecting will interview this cycle, please click here. 

On to my short list: 

Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator, Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator is admittedly selective and given his affinity for Dan Campbell, I wonder if he would take a job inside the NFC North. Though, to summarize the thoughts of one industry source I spoke to 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 a quarterback of the future and some veteran playmakers that can yield immediate success. If Eberflus’s tenure taught us anything, it’s that this team is not far off.

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Flores's Vikings defense has been dominant this season. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Brian Flores, defensive coordinator, Minnesota Vikings

Outside of Johnson, Flores has been the single-most dominant coordinator this season, building a Vikings defense from scratch while the team let go of higher-priced veterans. Flores replaced key players with nonhousehold names such as Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman. Unlike other Bill Belichick protégés, Flores has been able to mimic the true secret sauce of the legendary head coach: an amoebic defense built on trust; a group of players taught well enough to think and act on their own. According to those who are familiar with the DC, he has learned a lot from his previous stint as head coach of the Miami Dolphins and, given that he was coaching under some wildly unique circumstances, his tenure is worth looking back on for reconsideration. Paired 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 felt about Raheem Morris when I talked to people regarding [Morris’s] candidacy. I thought 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.”

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Kliff Kingsbury, offensive coordinator, Washington Commanders

In January of 2023, Kliff Kingsbury interviewed for the Bears’ offensive coordinator job, though that meeting certainly could have served a dual purpose given that Kingsbury worked closely with Caleb Williams at USC and the Bears planned on drafting the quarterback 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 victories, he did make it to a second contract and fielded a talented staff, including Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator. Staffers who worked with Kingsbury in Arizona found him to be pliable when it came to amending his Air Raid tendencies to the NFL, meshing it with a more McVay-style Rams offense. 

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

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Slowik has been credited with the development of Stroud. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Bobby Slowik, offensive coordinator, Houston Texans

Slowik was red hot at the end of last year’s cycle and interviewed well with the Commanders and Atlanta Falcons. Though this year’s Texans team is grinding its way through some personnel-related struggles, Slowik was at the helm for C.J. 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 of Slowik: “When Kyle got a job in San Francisco, I said, You better call Bobby. He got Bobby for a couple years on the defensive side of the football, then he moved him over for the offensive side. He was the perfect guy for Kyle. It was a great situation for everybody.

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

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Frank Smith, offensive coordinator, Miami Dolphins

Smith interviewed for the Carolina Panthers’ head coaching vacancy this offseason. He stands out in that his interpersonal skills are probably the most revered out of any coach on this list. Smith’s ability to make those around him feel comfortable and appreciated have been discussed by many of his former players and his hybrid background in the offensive line and as a coordinator under Mike McDaniel has only improved his candidacy, in my opinion. 

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Dan Pitcher, offensive coordinator, Cincinnati Bengals

Even before Brian Callahan left to take the head coaching job with the Tennessee Titans, there was a buzz about Pitcher, who has been the position coach for Joe Burrow since Burrow was drafted and now coordinates an offense that has been among the best in the NFL over the past four weeks. Separating Cincinnati’s offensive performance from their defensive personnel issues is important as the organization sets out on 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 roster that was put together similarly.

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Ask the Browns about Kevin Stefanski

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