(670 The Score) Embracing his fandom, Bears chairman George McCaskey announced Monday the Grabowski Executive Search Firm will find the team’s next general manager and coach.
Not really, but McCaskey made pretty clear in a bizarre hour-long press conference that a fan will lead them, wherever the Bears are going. Mostly in circles.
“I’m just a fan,’’ McCaskey said. “I’m not a football evaluator."
OK, great, but this situation in Bears history really, truly needs a football evaluator – not just a fan – to hire the right people who know how to win a Super Bowl.
The longer McCaskey spoke during his first media availability in a year, the stranger it got.
McCaskey takes great pride in his ability to relate to Bears fans, but this wasn't the occasion to remind everybody how common and ordinary he is. This was the wrong time for McCaskey to make people again wonder what qualifies him for this job beyond heredity. This was the moment to restore hope and faith in the NFL’s charter franchise. This was the time McCaskey needed to reassure everyone that everything would be just fine after firing general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy.
Instead, McCaskey chose to declare himself simply as a fan lacking football expertise yet asked his fellow fans to believe he still possesses the football acumen to make the final decision on who the next GM and coach will be.
Huh? Which is it? He can’t have it both ways.
Fans don’t make $100-million decisions affecting $4-billion corporations. And savvy football executives don’t go out of their way to identify themselves as simpleton fans – known as Grabowskis, in Bears lore. This isn’t fantasy football. The Bears face a reality that must be confronted by smart people. This isn’t some sort of sponsored Soldier Field ticket raffle where the winner gets to help choose the next GM and head coach. This is the NFL, a bottom-line, results-driven, cutthroat business run by professionals.
Act the part, Mr. Chairman. By George, step up.
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Fortunately for the Bears, McCaskey’s actions spoke louder and more emphatically than his words that confused and contradicted. He reiterated to the audience why he speaks so infrequently in public. McCaskey is an awkward and inelegant speaker, inspiring more doubt than confidence, revealing himself as someone best kept behind the scenes.
Too often, the Bears' messaging screams help. In ALL CAPS.
McCaskey’s January 2022 press conference performance didn’t embarrass the organization as much as the January 2021 production, but that’s probably a good debate. From beginning with oddly prepared statements criticizing high schoolers who heckled Nagy’s son to calling Bears legend Olin Kreutz a liar for saying the organization once offered him a $15-an-hour job as an offensive line instructor, McCaskey missed another opportunity to connect. The most uncomfortable, inappropriate part came when McCaskey referenced Parker Dickerson, the young son of dearly departed ESPN reporter and friend Jeff Dickerson, in a segue about criticism of Nagy. The oddest takeaway came when McCaskey shared that Nagy actually sought his opinion on whether to play Justin Fields, illustrating just how damaged Nagy’s psyche was if he was asking for quarterback advice from a guy who proudly stays out of football business.
But before going any deeper into what McCaskey said, in fairness, let’s focus on what he did on a monumental day for the Bears. The morning after the Bears finished 6-11, McCaskey fired Nagy and Pace. Nagy never fixed the offense he was brought from Kansas City to repair, going 34-31 and regressing after a fun 2018 season defined, in retrospect, by defense. Pace never won a playoff game in seven years presiding over the Bears, missing most spectacularly on one quarterback move after another. So, one year after the Bears celebrated the way Nagy and Pace collaborated, they ushered both out the Halas Hall door together, an exit each man deserved.
In doing so, the Bears met the moment. They made the difficult decision rooted in logic, surprising many conditioned to expect the illogical from a dysfunctional franchise. The moves suggested a football epiphany for McCaskey, a solid start at revitalizing a sleepy organization. In firing Nagy and Pace, the Bears embarked on their most important offseason of this generation, a five-year plan that must include building a stadium in Arlington Heights worthy of hosting a Super Bowl and putting a roster together capable of winning one. That’s all.
McCaskey shared details that will distinguish this search from previous ones since he took over as chairman in 2011, a decade-plus of futility that includes hiring two previous general managers and three head coaches. When the Bears interview general manager and head coaching candidates, they'll be joined in the room by McCaskey, team president Ted Phillips, Hall of Fame former executive Bill Polian and two lesser-known contributors: LaMar “Soup” Campbell, the Bears director of player engagement, and Tanesha Wade, the team’s senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. I’d hire a former Bears player as a consultant, somebody like Tom Thayer or Gary Fencik or Jerry Azumah, to provide some institutional knowledge of the Bears organization this group lacks.
Polian gives the group instant credibility, but he’s also 79 and a decade removed from his final season running the Colts. Seven years ago when seeking a GM and coach, the Bears similarly enlisted the help of longtime NFL executive Ernie Accorsi, who steered them to Pace and, eventually, John Fox. The Bears can only hope Polian offers insight Accorsi didn’t. Polian’s inclusion frankly represented some of Monday’s most encouraging revelations for the Bears given the respect he commands around the league. Asked directly whether he also consulted Tony Dungy, Polian’s coach in Indianapolis, McCaskey dodged the question for reasons only he knows.
Perhaps the best thing McCaskey said involved the identity he sought to establish with the two Bears hires.
“Tough, gritty, smart, opportunistic, winning football," McCaskey said.
The new GM will report to McCaskey instead of Phillips, a subtle but significant restructuring. The new coach will be someone who stands out to the Bears for his leadership ability, not for an offensive or defensive scheme or coaching tree, and McCaskey said they won’t be limited by “financial considerations." Money is no object when it comes to legacy hires, which is what both of these represent to a chairman pushing 80 who has overseen a lot of losing.
Names will trickle out as the Bears seek to find a GM before a head coach, unless urgency dictates otherwise.
Indianapolis Colts director of college scouting Morocco Brown will interview for the GM position, the NFL Network reported. The list also figures to include Saints vice president/assistant GM Jeff Ireland, a former Bears ball boy whose grandfather, Jim Parmer, was a successful Bears scout, and Dwayne Joseph, the Raiders director of pro scouting. Other names will emerge.
As for coaches, my original recommended short list remains the same: Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, former Eagles coach Doug Pederson, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. Add former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, surprisingly fired Monday, to that list. All have NFL head coaching experience, something I believe makes them more sensible for the Bears than hotshot offensive coordinators like Byron Leftwich of the Buccaneers or Brian Daboll of the Bills. Until Harbaugh makes a statement silencing the speculation, the Bears need to pursue him with everything they have. Harbaugh is as tough, gritty, smart and opportunistic – McCaskey’s words to describe his desired Bears identity – as they come.
Full disclosure: I wrote a column for the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 20, 2014, under the headline: “A Bill Polian-Jim Harbaugh Combo Could Make the Bears Special Again." A little more than seven years later, ironically, I believe the same is true again.
Whoever gets the job will inherit Fields, a 22-year-old quarterback with immense potential coming off an uneven rookie season. Whether the next GM and coach must see greatness in Fields as a prerequisite to the job is unclear based on McCaskey’s vague answer to that direct question.
“We want to know what their plan is with the quarterback position for the Bears," McCaskey said.
The Bears plan to hire the GM before the head coach, but circumstances could change that order, depending on the right candidate becoming available.
“We’ll know him when we see him," McCaskey said.
But can the Bears trust the vision of a self-proclaimed fan?
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.