NEWSLETTER
Even though the Bears don’t yet have a general manager, nothing is stopping them from putting out feelers to head coaching candidates. Remember, while George McCaskey said he’d prefer to hire a GM first, he also said the Bears will not delay their pursuit of any head coaching candidate they felt was right for the job.
First up, someone near and dear to the hearts of Bears fans:
Per source, the Bears have requested permission to interview Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier for their head coach opening.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) January 10, 2022
The Bears aren’t wasting much time in kick-starting their coaching search. Hours after firing Matt Nagy, the Bears are reportedly requesting an interview with Bills Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier. There’s been plenty of speculation regarding Frazier and a possible fit as the next Bears coach. In fact, it began before the position was even open. But with Nagy out of the picture, talks with Frazier can officially go down.
Frazier, 62, is in his fifth year as Buffalo’s defensive coordinator. His stint with the Bills is just one of many stops along Frazier’s coaching timeline. Frazier has experience coaching DBs (Eagles, Colts, Ravens), coordinating defenses (Bengals, Vikings, Bucs, Bills), and as a head coach (Vikings). But long before that, Frazier was a standout cornerback for the Bears from 1981-85. He led the team in interceptions during the franchise’s Super Bowl XX championship run.
That 21-32-1 record in Minnesota isn’t all that inspiring, but it doesn’t mean the Bears shouldn’t inquire and pick his brain. With the Bears having nothing more than a committee in place to interview candidates, I don’t expect the first person they interview to get the gig. Then again, I know better than to put anything past this organization.
To close, here’s a snippet from Brett’s take on the prospect of hiring a head coach before you hire a GM, despite openly admitting to not being football guys.
….That’s one of my biggest takeaways from the press conference. It didn’t actually bother me that McCaskey isn’t hiring a “football czar,” because he rightly pointed out that, if the GM is empowered to run all things football, that’s basically the same thing. Fine. But is this process really going to yield the right person? Since we can’t actually have confidence that lessons have been learned and processes have been improved, we as fans are also left to simply hope for luck. We have to hope that what might be an utterly broken process just happens to stumble on the best GM, the best head coach, and the best pairing of the two.
And don’t even get me started on the possibility that the Bears might choose the next head coach before they choose the GM, because if you go that route, clearly, the GM is not your top football person. Either you think you are, or you better make dang sure that the head coach is a monster heavy-hitter who can run football ops with the help of the GM.
