The Football Grim Reaper was waiting at Halas Hall on Black Monday and he brought his scythe down on both general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. The Nagy news was expected, but Pace getting axed was a welcome surprise, because the best thing for the Chicago Bears franchise is bringing in a new GM and head coach to work together from the start.
Once the new GM is hired he will report directly to Chairman George McCaskey, and that’s a new wrinkle in how the Bears operate. In the past the GM would report to Team President and CEO Ted Phillips.
McCaskey has assembled a team of individuals that will have input on the hiring of both the general manager and the new head coach, and that includes himself, Phillips, consultant Bill Polian, Bears vice president of player engagement LaMar “Soup” Campbell, and Bears senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade. Presumably the GM will be hired first and he’ll have some say in the head coach, but with this franchise who knows.
We’ll update this story-stream with anything we do in regards to the GM/head coaching search, and it’ll also serve as the GM/head coach news and rumor tracker.
General Manager Candidate Tracker
The Bears have requested an interview with Indianapolis Colts VP of Player Personnel Ed Dodds. (link)
The Bears have reached out to former Houston Texans VP of Football Operations Rick Smith. (link)
Indianapolis Colts Director of College Scouting Morocco Brown is expected to be interviewed by the Bears. (link)
The Bears have requested to interview Cleveland Browns Vice President of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. (link)
Bears have also requested to interview Browns Vice President of Player Personnel Glenn Cook. (link)
An interview request for New Orleans Saints Assistant General Manager & College Scouting Director Jeff Ireland has been requested. (link)
Head Coach Candidate Tracker
A big one – Bears have requested to interview former Miami Dolphins HC Brian Flores. (link)
Bears have requested to interview Dallas Cowboys DC and former Atlanta Falcons HC Dan Quinn. (link)
Bears have requested to interview Indianapolis Colts DC Matt Eberflus. (link)
Bears have submitted requests to interview both Tampa Bay Buccaneers coordinators – OC Byron Leftwich; and DC Todd Bowles. (link)
Bears have requested to interview Green Bay Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett. (link)
Bears have requested to interview Buffalo Bills Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier. (link)
And a request is in to interview Buffalo’s Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll. (link)
Former Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson will be interviewed by the Bears. (link)
The WCG Podcast Channel has been all over the Black Monday news, so be sure to subscribe where ever you get your podcasts so you never miss a thing.
- Here’s Bill Zimmerman unloading everything off his chest after that George McCaskey press conference.
- Jeff Berckes and EJ Snyder spoke with Pro Football Focus’ Brad Speilberger a few weeks ago about some general manager candidates around the NFL, so they cut that segment up and rereleased it as a stand alone pod here.
- As soon as the news broke on Monday morning, we had Robert Schmitz and Jeff Berckes fire off one of our breaking news Bearly a Podcast shows.
