10 coaching candidates to consider if the Chicago Bears fire Matt Eberflus

The Chicago Bears would love to have themselves a defensive coach.

The Chicago Bears are still owned by the McCaskey family, and they love defensive coordinators to be their head coach.

Defensive-minded head coaches have always been this family’s preference. Since firing Mike Ditka in 1992, the McCaskey’s have hired seven head coaches. Five of them were from the defensive side of the ball. Lovie Smith was the only coach to have sustained success.

After watching Matt Eberflus fail, the fan base might not want another defensive coordinator to be the team’s head coach. The fans do not own the team, the McCaskey’s do. Chairman George McCaskey tends to influence who is hired as head coach.

Hopefully, team president Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles would be empowered to hire whoever they want if Eberflus is fired.

Still, there are a couple of names with a background in defense that they should consider.

Raheem Morris is worth becoming a head coach again.

Morris was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009-2011. While his tenure was not successful, he has done the job before. He was also the interim head coach for the Atlanta Falcons.

It was with the Falcons where he also spent some time coaching on the offensive side of the ball. It is not like he would come in without offensive coaching experience.

Plus, he is currently Sean McVay’s defensive coordinator. He could build the offensive staff with coaches who come from the McVay tree.

Brian Flores has a record of success as a head coach.

Flores is part of a class-action lawsuit against the NFL when it comes to hiring minorities for head coaching jobs. That still should not prevent the Chicago Bears from considering him.

There were rumblings that he butted heads with the Miami Dolphins’ leadership before he was fired. He also had two winning seasons for an organization that was trying to lose on purpose.

Unlike Eberflus, he found a way to turn around a floundering team and keep them from quitting.

Plus, he is currently working for Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota as the defensive coordinator. So, he might be able to tap into the Sean McVay tree to build an offensive staff.

He has also worked for Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh and Bill Belichick in New England. You cannot rule out Flores because he is a defensive coordinator. After all, he has a track record of winning in the NFL as a head coach.

Dan Quinn nearly won a Super Bowl when he was the head coach for Atlanta.

Quinn has been a hot name during the recent hiring cycles. He keeps going back to Dallas to run the defense. Maybe Quinn is hoping Mike McCarthy fails and he will get the Cowboys job.

Quinn was a successful head coach for the Falcons. He guided them to the Super Bowl in 2016 and nearly won the whole thing. Yes, he was in charge of the greatest collapse in NFL history. At the same time, he built a really good offensive staff.

It was rumored that Ryan Pace wanted to hire Quinn in 2014 over John Fox. Maybe it is time to bring him into Chicago to be the CEO coach that Ryan Poles might prefer and that Eberflus has failed to be.