I was sitting and waiting for an appointment this morning while scrolling through Twitter (I still call it Twitter just like I still call the Sears Tower and Comiskey Park by their proper names!) and this came across my timeline just as I was thinking about Chicago Bears offensive coordinator candidates:
Whether this is an example of David Kaplan predicting, sharing an opinion, or reporting is irrelevant to the conversation I’d like to dig into today.
This tweet sparked the following thought: Do all of the Bears offensive coordinator candidates have connections to the Kyle Shanahan tree? Hiring a Kyle Shanahan protégé is trendy. But it also seems to be working for teams. In doing some cursory digging, I found that all but one interview target has some sort of connection to Shanahan. But more than anything, all but one candidate has a connection to Sean McVay. So maybe we should re-frame this. perhaps we should look at this and say it looks like the Bears will hire an offensive coordinator off the Sean McVay tree.
Branching out to the Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay tree might be the Bears’ best idea
For what it’s worth, both trees are healthy. And if college and high school level environmental science classes taught me anything it’s that tree health is important for global health. With that in mind, here are the branches we’re looking at when it comes to Chicago Bears offensive coordinator candidates:
OK, so they’re not all direct descendants of the Shanahan tree. Some of the connections are loose. But there is no denying the not-so-invisible string ties them to either Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay. And in some cases, it’s both. Evidently, the Bears have a type — and I’m not mad about it. You like what you like. And for the Bears, it looks like they have an affinity for a McVay or Shanahan disciple.
Only Greg Roman doesn’t fit the bill here. And that’s fine because you need a little variety in your interview process. Going into this search with tunnel vision would be kin to the same kind of thinking that led them to interviewing only Pep Hamilton and Luke Getsy in 2022. Not repeating that mistake again is a small step in the right direction. And stepping toward the Shanahan (or McVay) tree counts as progress, too.