The NFL head coach carousel has become akin to free agency. Rumors tend to get out of control, pulling fans in one direction and then another. They aren’t sure who has the right information and who doesn’t. It can be exhausting after a while. Still, Chicago Bears fans know how important the next hire is for the franchise. If the organization nails it, they are set up for years of future success. As things stand, the widespread assumption among many in the media is that former Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is the favorite for the job.

He had an in-person interview earlier this week, and it seemed to go well, considering he stayed overnight. Many leaped to the conclusion that McCarthy is now the heavy favorite. Benjamin Allbright of KOA Colorado, who has some of the best inside information out there, put the kibosh on that during an appearance on the Irish Bears Show.

Mike McCarthy has much deeper roots down south.

Before ascending the mantle of eventual Super Bowl-winning head coach, he was an established offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints in the early 2000s. He helped them make the playoffs for the first time in eight years, produce two winning seasons, and a top-10 offense twice. His relationship with GM Mickey Loomis can’t be ignored. When Mike McCarthy became available in 2020, Sean Payton was still the head coach. That obstacle no longer remains. The Saints need somebody to help steady the ship as they look to retool the roster. While the job might not appeal to some, that isn’t the case for him. It’s in a much weaker division and a domed stadium where offenses benefit. Allbright seems to think there is more steam there than other outlets suggest. Chicago is still in the mix, but it might not be wise to hand him the job at this stage.

The Chicago Bears have remained steadfast in their approach to the ongoing head coaching carousel. They’ve met with almost a dozen candidates thus far, and several more are on the schedule. If you believe recent reports, it feels like prominent names are starting to emerge. Ben Johnson, Mike McCarthy, and Brian Flores are early favorites. However, Todd Monken and Adam Stenavich are considered sleepers as well. However, GM Ryan Poles made it clear the team would exhaust all possible avenues to find the right guy.

That includes the trade market.

Now, head coach trades are incredibly rare. Only seven have happened in the past 30 years. The most recent was Sean Payton going to Denver in a deal with New Orleans. Some wondered if Kyle Shanahan might be next after his rough season in San Francisco. However, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports dropped a bombshell two weeks ago.

“The leverage is that there’s been no contract talks with Kevin O’Connell, at all. He has one year left on this deal,” Glazer said. “Over the years, several different teams have looked at a guy like Mike Tomlin to see if they could do that. Try to backdoor, see if they can do something like that but it didn’t really get there. It’s kind of what happens in this league.”

“I never said he’s getting traded, but without a doubt, there are teams and the teams that are involved asked me ‘please do no mention us,’ which I have to respect,” Glazer continued. “I know that one team at least saying ‘Man, we would gear up and trade this, this and this for a guy like this.’ So yeah, there are talks internally in buildings about trying to make a run. Look, it could be a long shot, it could be a crazy idea, but it’s only crazy if you dont take a shot.”

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk corroborated this story.

It appears tension between O’Connell and ownership has grown steadily since the end of the 2023 season. By dragging their feet, it has created an uncomfortable situation. While O’Connell stated he hoped to get an extension done, there are zero signs of progress.

“The Week 18 Sunday Splash! report from Jay Glazer that multiple teams are interested in trading for O’Connell wasn’t idle talk. There’s tension in the relationship, stemming largely from the fact that he didn’t get an extension after his second season. Now that he’s one year away from free agency, he could be willing to let it ride, if necessary, and hit the market.”

The Chicago Bears aren’t remaining idle in this.

A source reached out to SM with an update confirming that team brass has reached out Minnesota about the possibility of acquiring O’Connell. The Vikings have been lowballing him in discussions to this point. This isn’t a surprise. Minnesota has a track record of underpaying its coaches. Mike Zimmer received an extension in 2020 worth $5 million per year. That wasn’t anywhere close to the top 10 in the league despite having taken the team to the playoffs, including an NFC championship, three times in five years.

Remember, Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren spent 14 years with the Vikings organization from 2005 to 2019. He has a longstanding relationship with the Wilf family. That gives him inroads, perhaps relaying that the Bears are willing to make a deal for O’Connell if they are unwilling to meet the head coach’s desired number.

It sounds unbelievable. Why would the Vikings even consider moving on from O’Connell, let alone dealing within the division? Maybe because they’ve done it several times in recent years. In 2022, they made three significant deals with Detroit and Green Bay, including one that brought star tight end T.J. Hockenson from the Lions. The New York Jets traded Bill Belichick to the Patriots in 2000. Such an idea is hardly uncharted territory. The Bears have many good reasons to pursue it, long odds or not.

Chicago Bears fans have long disliked and distrusted George McCaskey ever since he took over as team chairman in 2011, and one of his first significant acts was firing GM Jerry Angelo. Just over a year later, he also fired Lovie Smith. The two men who’d gotten the Bears to a Super Bowl were gone, replaced by Phil Emery and Marc Trestman. That, of course, was a disaster. Fast forward to a brutal night at Soldier Field against Seattle, where the Bears lost 6-3, and fans serenaded McCaskey with chants of “Sell the team!”

Thanks to a brutal exposé from Kalyn Kahler of ESPN, things have only gotten worse for him this week. In her article, she wrote about a small group of agents’ overwhelming power over the NFL head coach cycle every year. No team has felt the string of this more than the Bears, who have been at the mercy of Trace Armstrong going all the way back to 2018.

Since 2018, agent and ex-Chicago defensive end Trace Armstrong and his agency, Athletes First, have represented two fired Bears head coaches, Matt Nagy and Eberflus; three fired offensive coordinators, Mark Helfrich, Luke Getsy and Shane Waldron; as well as current general manager Ryan Poles.

“I’ve never seen one agent have so much influence on one team and had so little success, but they keep going back and taking his guys,” said one coaching agent, who requested anonymity to speak freely on the topic. “And we all kind of shake our heads like, have they not figured this out yet?”

The rest of the NFL sees what the fans see.

Armstrong might be a former defensive end for the team, but he has zero loyalty to the organization. His job is to get his clients work, and it didn’t take him long to realize McCaskey would be an easy one to trick.

“Armstrong has had more influence with the Bears than any other team,” a coaching agent said. “That’s because he was dealing with an accountant that really didn’t know football people, and he took advantage of that, and I give him credit for that.”

People were surprised when former head coach Ron Rivera got an interview with the team.

He had plenty of experience and ties to the organization. It was logical the Bears would do this despite how things ended in Washington, right? Nope. In reality, Rivera likely got his interview because Armstrong once again worked over McCaskey.

When Ron Rivera was looking for new representation at the end of his tenure as coach of the Commanders in 2023, he said he hired his former Bears teammate Armstrong because it seemed like every time he’d interview assistants for a position, most of them were represented by Armstrong.

“The guy had a lot of connections, and that’s what you look for, is a guy that can get you in front of other people,” said the two-time NFL head coach, who interviewed for the Jets job in December and the Bears job Jan. 12. “The guy’s a hustler. The guy works really hard.”

George McCaskey isn’t a leader. He’s a weak link.

There is no other way to put it. He might be the chairman of the organization, but it is clearer than ever that he is not respected by actual football people around the league. They know he’s in over his head and aren’t surprised he is so easy to take advantage of whenever tough football decisions must be made. This is why the Bears have floundered so miserably for over a decade. The man making the most important choices inside the organization is like asking Homer Simpson to run a nuclear reactor. Disaster always follows.

Only a stroke of remarkable good fortune will save the Bears from this nightmare. GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren, both of whom are George McCaskey hires, somehow get the head coaching search right. Then again, we shouldn’t act like this is anything new. George’s brother, Michael McCaskey, also stumbled through the wilderness for over a decade. Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron were his two big hires after firing Mike Ditka in 1993. He mercifully stumbled onto Lovie Smith in 2004.

That should give you an idea of the Bears’ quagmire and why fans desperately want this team sold.

The Chicago Bears requested an interview with Mike McCarthy when he was still employed by the Dallas Cowboys. It was denied. Jerry Jones sent a seemingly clear signal that he wished to keep the veteran head coach in silver and blue. A few days later, news broke that McCarthy would not be returning. He’d become a free agent. Just 24 hours later, he took a private jet to Chicago, where he met with team brass for several hours. It would appear he is already a finalist for the job.

It isn’t hard to see why McCarthy would be interested. The Bears have a solid foundation with good players across the roster. Most importantly, they have a young quarterback in need of development. The head coach has a long track record of success on that front. However, there may be another reason he has eyes for the job. It is possible he sees it as an opportunity to claim something he’s never really had before, which is significant roster control. Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron revealed how.

It centers around the fate of GM Ryan Poles.

McCarthy checks a lot of boxes the Bears are looking for. He’s an offensive-minded guy for Caleb Williams, he’s an experienced coach, and is he a leader of men? I think that can be questioned but he does have a history of winning which I don’t think the Bears will ignore.

The Saints are also quite interested in McCarthy as well, so it’s always possible that the Saints scoop in and land McCarthy as well. The two names that are rumored to be high on the Saints list are McCarthy and Aaron Glenn.

Also one other note about McCarthy, I think he would sign with the Bears and have no issue if the Bears don’t extend Ryan Poles.

Mike McCarthy might be playing the long game.

Some see Poles not getting a contract extension as a lack of stability. Others see it as a chance to bring in somebody more familiar after one season. McCarthy would undoubtedly have a say in that process, especially if he managed to produce a good first year in Chicago. Keep in mind throughout his 18 years as a head coach, he never had any definitive say in the makeup of his roster. In Green Bay, former GM Ted Thompson always has the final say. McCarthy was known to be frustrated with his stubborn refusal to be more active in free agency. Then, in Dallas, it was the same thing. Jerry Jones had the final say on roster decisions, and he never made aggressive moves, either.

Mike McCarthy must be thinking that if he can just wait Poles out, he can convince Kevin Warren to bring in somebody who will know how he wants the roster built—somebody willing to be aggressive when the situation calls for it. Every coach seeks the most power he can grasp. It appears McCarthy senses an opportunity in Chicago. The Bears have never given a head coach the final say on roster decisions, but he could skirt that by getting Poles replaced with a GM he’s closer to.