Rumors of Chicago Bears hiring head coach before GM debunked

The Chicago Bears have entered the third week of their search for the team’s next general manager and head coach as the team has lined up second round interviews with both general managerial candidates and head coaching candidates.

This week, the Bears are expected to meet with Kansas City Chiefs executive Ryan Poles, Tennessee Titans executive Monti Ossenfort, and New England Patriots executive Elliot Wolf for a second interview regarding their general manager vacancy. Concurrently, the Bears are also expected to meet with head coaching candidates Jim Caldwell, Matt Eberflus, and Dan Quinn for a second time this week.

As the Bears have begun the third week of their search process, criticism has emerged over how the team is conducting this search. Being that list of finalists for the Bears’ head coaching vacancy emerged prior to the Bears finalizing their first round interviews with prospective general manager candidates, it seemed likely that the team was going to hire a head coach prior to hiring a general manager. Such a move would signal the same mistake that the Bears made in 2015 when there was common belief that John Fox would be the head coach at the time that Ryan Pace was hired as the team’s general manager.

Despite the perception of the Bears’ search, 670 The Score’s Matt Spiegel reports that the Bears will indeed hire a general manager prior to hiring a head coach. Spiegel also confirmed that prospective general manager candidates have already met with prospective head coach candidates.

Rumors of the Chicago Bears making a mistake by hiring a head coach before hiring general manager appear to have been debunked.

If history is any indicator, the Bears must hire their general manager before hiring their head coach. The last time that the Bears opted for a pre-arranged marriage, it was between Pace and Fox. Fox only lasted three years as the Bears’ head coach, and by the third year, it was clear that Pace was ready to move on from the veteran head coach as the general manager did not even include the coach in the 2017 Draft preparation process. Hiring the head coach prior to the general manager will only guarantee that the general manager will be able survive at least one head coach being that he wasn’t allowed to pick his desired candidate.

The idea of the prospective general manager candidates meeting with prospective head coach candidates is encouraging. Reason being that if the Chicago Bears Bears truly are going to hire a general manager prior to hiring the head coach, they will need to act fast in terms of hiring a head coach. The general manager already having spoken with a prospective head coach would only expedite that process.