One thing about the head coach carousel is it’s always hard to predict. There can often be twists and turns people didn’t see coming. It appears another such moment came to pass. After several days of uncertainty, it felt like head coach Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys might be headed towards an extension before he became available on January 14th. Alas, that is no longer happening. Tom Pelissero broke the news that the 61-year-old head coach will hit the market and can begin speaking with teams immediately.
This adds a significant piece to the board that wasn’t there before. Depending on what Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren want to do, it has the potential to impact the Chicago Bears in a myriad of ways.
The Bears hire Mike McCarthy.
This is the most straightforward possibility. Chicago put in a request to interview McCarthy last week but was denied. That was the first clear indication they were interested. It’s not hard to see why. He has lots of coaching experience, which Warren seems to prefer. He also has a long, established track record of maximizing his quarterbacks, which is a big deal for Poles. It looks like he’d be an ideal candidate on paper, to say nothing of his familiarity with the NFC North from his time in Green Bay.
Dallas jumps into the Ben Johnson sweepstakes.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
This one should not be overlooked. The Bears appear to be battling Las Vegas and Jacksonville for the chance to lure the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator to their sidelines. Dallas could be a game-changer. They have the money, prestige, and quarterback necessary to entice Johnson into taking their job. He’d inherit a talented roster that should be able to compete immediately. The only drawback is he would have zero say on personnel matters. Jerry Jones has never and will never relinquish that.
McCarthy impacts two other head coach openings.
This last part doesn’t directly influence the Bears but could have a ripple effect. The other team that is gunning for Mike McCarthy at this early stage is the New Orleans Saints. He spent a few years as an offensive coordinator in the early 2000s. A homecoming would be appealing in some ways. If that happened, it likely means the New York Jets would land Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who they’re reportedly competing with the Saints to get. That leaves the rest of the field to sort out in Chicago, Vegas, Jacksonville, and Dallas.
@Rocketrider dropped it first, but here’s my take on it: Jones hires Deion Sanders as the next Cowboys head coach. Given that he played many years for the Cowboys, it’s a natural fit. Then, the Cowboys trade the #12 pick, their first round pick next year, and Dak Prescott to the Browns for the #2 overall pick, and choose Sheduer Sanders with that pick. Maybe Tennessee likes Ward better, maybe they have to trade up to #1, maybe Sanders falls below 3, but I could see something like this happening, given that Jerry Jones loves making splashy moves.
@TGena We actually agree in some things, but where we differ is on what control over the W-L record the GM actually has, particularly when we still do not (and likely never will) know the true story about how Eberflus was hired, and who decided he must be retained. Generally, though, the GM can accumulate talent, but he doesn’t develop it, deploy it, motivate it, game plan for it, etc. Combine that with the reality that this roster had holes (which is to be expected at this stage of a rebuild), but it wasn’t nearly as bad as their 5-12… Read more »
@Arnie — Take your/my starting five — and add: a competent O-line coach; a solid RB (this roster has zero), and a scheme that makes sense of all the Bears weapons; and I believe (as I assume you do) that the Bears O-line would move up dramatically in the rankings. But, in the reality of a top-down driven.NFL team, assembled and directed by a “perpetual rookie” GM, and a first-time NFL coach, who actually “melted” on the field — at the most inopportune times — and you end up with a 15-36 won-lost record. And we all know: in the… Read more »
@TGena Interesting. It would also be interesting to see how the Bears would have ranked if they actually had Jones, Jenkins, Shelton, Prior or Bates, and Wright playing together for all 17 games. Or had their starting 5 for at least most of the 17 games and competent coaching/scheme design/playcalling.
Besides tomorrow the rumor will be Jerry wants Neon Deon as his coach.