How Do We Feel About the Polian Process? Cowboys Drama, Giants and Vikings Impact on Chicago, and Other Bears Bullets

TikTok gets a bad rap from time to time, but it confirmed something I already knew to be true in my heart — Taylor Swift’s music is a certified mood-lifter. Don’t give me that look. Send all your ire to British researchers, who found out this wonderful development.

•   Twelve days after firing Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy, the Chicago Bears have yet to name a replacement for either. Since the search process began 10 days ago, the Bears have officially had interviews with eight head coach candidates and 11 aspiring general managers. Is this good? Bad? The new norm? Admittedly, I’m angsty. And I imagine part of it is due to the inevitability of the thing. Let’s face it. The end of the Pace-Nagy era has felt inevitable going on a year now. We’ve been thinking about new leadership in the front office going on 13 months. And pushing the coach aside has been on our radar since September. Since we’ve been expecting it for so long, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that a search for new leadership going into a third week is something that us (as a collective).

•   I think there is value in a thorough process. Sure, this one is equal parts exhaustive and exhausting — but it feels necessary. The Bears have long been needing a more expansive understanding of modern football. So, in that vein, I think it is important that they have cast a wide net. Get some depth and perspective from candidates in better-run organizations. Pick some brains. Unearth some relevant information you can apply to your own franchise. Maybe even get to know some names of people you should check in with to better yourself. Perhaps it shouldn’t take *THIS* long. But I’m curious to see what kind of result this process spits out.

•   One thing feels certain — if the Bears have eyes on particular candidates, they should pick up the pace. Which is ironic, in a way, because they had to drop Pace to get to this point. Only the Bears

•   But seriously, the Giants and Vikings could push the envelope here. ESPN’s Jordan Raanan reports Brian Daboll, Leslie Frazier, Brian Flores, and Dan Quinn are on New York’s head coach watch list. Meanwhile, the Vikings have already met with GM candidates Eliot Wolf and Glenn Cook, reportedly have Ryan Poles as a finalist, and had interviews with coaching candidates such as Quinn and Todd Bowles. Crossover was inevitable between the three searches. However, business figures to only pick up from here.

•   Things could be worse for the Bears. They could be doing this:

•   Is it too early to predict Ben McAdoo will be serving as the Panthers interim head coach? Because that’s usually the path this takes. The Matt Rhule experience hasn’t been a pleasant one. He has already fired one offensive coordinator, is stuck with Sam Darnold for another year, and his team’s best player is a running back who hasn’t played a full 16-game seasons since 2019. This looks like it has the makings of a recipe for disaster.

•  Speaking of potential disaster, the Cowboys! Jerry Jones’ annual call out of his players and coaches after another disappointing season didn’t disappoint:

•   From the I’m Not Sayin’, I’m Just Sayin’… folder: If Jerry Jones feels that strongly about Amari Cooper’s lack of production, Dallas can cut Cooper and create $16 million in cap space in the process. And at the cost of just a $6 million dead money hit, maybe it is worth it to Jones to shake things up in Dallas. Should that be the case, I know a place that could use a bonafide WR1 who has five 1,000-yard receiving campaigns in seven seasons as a pro.

•   I hope the NFL is doing this for the right reasons and not in an attempt to skirt the possibility of COVID negatively impacting its playoffs:

•   If you want promo offers for the divisional games this weekend, make sure you check out the ones we’ve got from FanDuel here and here, and from BetMGM here.

•   The Packers being good is bad enough. But adding the Bucks and Brewers being on a competitive up-swing becomes increasingly annoying with each day that passes.

•   Chicago’s basketball team could have eyes for adding size before the trade deadline:

•   Oh, come on…

written by

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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