Forget the 'wide net,' Bears just need to get a big fish

Bears general manager Ryan Poles emphasized an expansive search to find the team’s next head coach like that was a good thing. As if the only thing keeping the Bears from finding the next Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay in previous searches was being too short-sighted.

“We’re going to cast a wide net,” Poles said. “It’s going to be a diverse group. [There] will be different backgrounds from offense, defense, special teams, college, pro. We’re turning very stone to make sure we’re doing this the right way.

“We believe that is going to be really, really important. There’s going to be some names that you don’t expect that are going to surprise you, because we’re digging deeper than we ever have before.”

The Bears cast that net almost immediately this week, with at least 17 candidates (including Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who was unavailable after the Cowboys denied the Bears’ request to interview him) three days after the regular season ended.

They interviewed former Titans coach Mike Vrabel and Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing on Wednesday; and former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver on Thursday.

They are scheduled to interview Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — the marquee candidate — on Saturday. All the interviews have been virtual.

The expansive, no-stone-unturned, diversity-based search sounds good, giving the impression the Bears are doing their due diligence. Unfortunately, under chairman George McCaskey they haven’t been very good at those searches in the past — a big reason why this is the Bears’ fifth coaching search in the last 12 years.

In 2013, after general manager Phil Emery fired Lovie Smith, the Bears interviewed at least 13 candidates and chose Marc Trestman, a former NFL assistant who was the head coach of the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes. The other finalist was Bruce Arians, the Colts’ offensive coordinator who was about to win the NFL Coach of the Year Award for a 9-3 stint as interim coach when Chuck Pagano underwent treatment for leukemia.

In 2022, after general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy were fired, the Bears interviewed 13 candidates for the GM job and hired Poles. They interviewed 10 candidates for the coaching job and hired Matt Eberflus — one of three finalists given to Poles when he was hired as GM (former Falcons coach Dan Quinn and former Lions coach Jim Caldwell were the other two finalists).

And last year, after offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was fired, the Bears interviewed nine candidates to replace Getsy and hired Shane Waldron, the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator.

Despite being accomplished in three seasons with the Seahawks (with a quarterback in the Pro Bowl all three times), Waldron had all sorts of issues with the Bears and was fired after nine games. Not only that, but two of the candidates they turned down were big hits as coordinators on playoff teams, with particularly impressive work with quarterbacks — the Commanders’ Kliff Kingsbury (rookie Jayden Daniels) and the Buccaneers’ Liam Coen (Baker Mayfield).

From Emery to Poles, the Bears just haven’t shown the intuition to find that coach who’s better than anyone thinks — like the Eagles hiring Andy Reid when he was a quarterbacks coach for the Packers; or the Steelers hiring Mike Tomlin after one year as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator; or the Ravens hiring John Harbaugh when he was mostly the Eagles special teams coordinator.

So instead of an expansive search, the Bears should take the opposite approach — focus on the big names (Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel) and hot coordinators (Ben Johnson, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores) and take the biggest swing they can.

That’s hardly fool-proof. But if the Bears fail with the big-name, hot-coordinator tack, at least they will have gone down swinging. Drew Petzing might turn out to be a better head coach than Ben Johnson. Todd Monken might be the next Arians. But can you trust the Bears to have that kind of perception?

This might be an unorthodox approach for the Bears, but so be it. Their way hasn’t worked since GM Jerry Angelo hired Smith in 2004 — and really since George Halas pulled rank on GM Jim Finks and hired Mike Ditka in 1982.

Instead of being expansive, the Bears need to keep it simple. Or at least be ready to strike. While they were conducting a 15-day search to find Trestman in 2013, Chiefs owner and chairman Clark Hunt was doing his own search after firing Romeo Crennel on Dec. 31, 2012 — the same day the Bears fired Smith.

Hunt planned a thorough search and interviewed two candidates on Jan. 1, 2013, the day after Crennel was fired — Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and Falcons special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. But when Hunt interviewed Reid on Jan. 2, it was over. Reid cancelled an interview with the Cardinals on Jan. 3 and signed a five-year contract with the Chiefs on Jan. 4. And the rest is history.