NEWSLETTER
Add another to the growing list of early head coach interview requests for the Chicago Bears, and this one is a familiar divisional face.
From Tom Pelissero this morning:
The #Bears put in a request to interview #Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett for their head coaching job, per source.
Hackett already has interviews scheduled this week with the #Jaguars and #Broncos. A hot candidate.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 11, 2022
We’d heard about Nathaniel Hackett before as a possible candidate for the Bears:
Nathaniel Hackett won’t be the sexiest name to surface in this hiring cycle, and because Matt LaFleur handles play-calling duties that are ultimately carried out by Aaron Rodgers, there will be ample push-back should he interview. But the diversity in Hackett’s background in terms of coaches he has done work under should work in his favor. Not only is he a branch on the LaFleur tree, Hackett has been under Jon Gruden (Buccaneers 2006-07), Dick Jauron (Bills 2008-09), Doug Marrone (2013-14), and Gus Bradley (2015-18). There is value in not being in just one system for a long time. *cough*
It’s going to be a little difficult to suss out precisely what Hackett’s role has been in the Packers’ offensive success for the reasons Luis offered, but that doesn’t mean he might not be a very capable head coach. As we saw in the Matt Nagy Era, getting a highly-respected highly-successful offensive coordinator will not necessarily translate to an effective Bears offense without the ability to put others in positions to succeed. That’s where you need to have an excellent hiring process in place to sort those things out. And it would probably be nice to have a GM in place first, too.
Also: if you get the chance to bring in a top Packers coach and pick his brain a bit, you do it. There are competitive reasons that extend beyond his eligibility for the head coaching job. Glad he’s on the list.
In general, the five-person search committee is aggressively putting in interview requests for potential head coaches, but I wouldn’t (yet) read too much into that being about them choosing a head coach irrespective of the GM hire. For one thing, we’re only hearing about what gets out there into the public sphere (most likely from agents or associates of the candidates). For another thing, the postseason is a timing factor for a lot of candidates. And for still another thing, these are merely requests. You gotta put ’em in, and you have to start getting ducks in a row now so that options are held open *IF* you land your GM soon-ish, and your GM wants to interview Candidate X very soon.
Or maybe I’m just being hopeful that this is all merely super-preemptive, because I kinda think your top football guy should have some input on your head coach (unless you are hiring one of the rare head coaches that you are going to allow, effectively, to be your top football guy, with the GM coming in for support).
Known #Bears GM Interview Targets (so far):
– CLE VP of Football Ops Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
– CLE VP of Player Personnel, Glenn Cook
– IND Director of College Scouting, Morocco BrownKnown #Bears HC Interview Targets:
– BUF DC Leslie Frazier
– Doug Pederson
– BUF OC Brian Daboll— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) January 11, 2022
