One of the biggest stories to hit the NFL wire in the past month was the somewhat surprising decision by the Carolina Panthers to part ways with head coach Ron Rivera. The man had run the franchise dating back to 2011 and had a great deal of success. This included four trips to the playoffs and an appearance in the Super Bowl in 2015. The team got off to a good start this year despite losing Cam Newton to a season-ending foot injury but ran out of juice over the past month.
With four games remaining, owner David Tepper felt the time was right to begin the process of making a change. Rivera was fired and expectations are the team will look towards a more “cutting edge” approach. So what does this mean for the man himself? Most experts agree that Rivera is among the most respected coaches and men in the NFL. He won’t have trouble finding a job elsewhere. The question is what does he want to do?
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has heard that there are two positions he has his eye on. One of them being the coveted head coaching job of the Chicago Bears.
“The two positions that would most closely appeal to Rivera on a personal level, according to several sources who know him well, would be the Chargers, with a chance to return to his Southern California roots, or the Bears, where he played and coached. While those teams have sputtered badly at times this season, it’s nowhere close to certain either of those jobs will be opening.”
Ron Rivera has to wait if he wants storybook reunion
It’s no surprise that Rivera would want the Bears coaching job. He played for the team in the 1980s and won a Super Bowl with them. Then he became their defensive coordinator in the mid-2000s and helped them reach the Super Bowl in 2006. He is widely loved and respected in this town by fans. It would make a ton of sense for him to be the choice for leading the franchise. However, the timing of this could not be worse.
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Matt Nagy is the reigning Coach of the Year, taking the Bears to the playoffs in 2018. Now after a 4-6 start, he has the team clicking at 7-6 with a chance for a surprise run if they can win their final three games. All of this points to the extreme unlikelihood the team will make a change at head coach in 2020. This means one of two things for Rivera. Either he will have to take a head job somewhere else, or he may have to take a year off next season in hopes the Bears position opens up in 2021.
Given who Rivera is, the latter option does not seem likely at this point. Instead, he might make a play for the Chargers job which seems somewhat in flux as the team is on course for a disappointing finish with lots of offseason changes coming.
