Kalyn Kahler writes an eye-opening piece at ESPN about how coaching agents have impacted the NFL’s offseason hiring cycles. It is a fascinating story for NFL fans all over the spectrum. Football nerds who geek out over the trivial things will find some aspects to be worthwhile. Fans who want a better understanding of how the sausage is made will be more informed after reading this. And anyone wanting to pile on the Chicago Bears will also get a kick out of it.
And yet, my biggest takeaway from reading the story this morning is that it puts the Bears’ search for a new head coach into a different perspective. Coming away from my morning reading feeling better about Chicago’s coaching search is not something I was expecting. So much so that I forced myself to read it again to make sure what I was feeling was real.
Now, to put those thoughts and feelings into words that the BN readership can understand.
A new perspective on the Bears’ search for a new head coach
One of the main takeaways from the Kahler piece is that the Bears look rough because of their connection to NFL agent Trace Armstrong, a power player whose clients have been hired by Chicago’s football team at its most important positions. One of his clients (Ryan Poles) is the Bears’ GM, two clients (Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus) have been brought on as head coaches, and three (Mark Helfrich, Luke Getsy, and Shane Waldron) joined as offensive coordinators.
That snapshot should serve as a reminder of how insulated the Bears are as a franchise that a former player turned agent has essentially turned himself into an organizational kingmaker. Whether it was by design or by pure happenstance is irrelevant. When it comes to optics, it is what it is. But with that being said, “it is what it is” doesn’t mean “it is what it will always be.”
Beyond the obvious, there are two things I hope Bears fans take from reading the ESPN piece. Firstly, it’s that the Bears casting a wide net of interview candidates in their coaching search is the kind of thing that *SHOULD* help the team avoid falling into the Trace Armstrong trap. Chopping it up with a bunch of different candidates who have different representation would ideally break down some walls and expand the organization’s vision cone. To be clear, the dearth of coaching agents means there are still limitations. However, reaching out and connecting with coaches at different agencies counts as a step in the right direction.
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Secondly, and perhaps the most important takeaway, is that there is a sense that the Trace Armstrong Package Deal experience is on the cusp of coming to an end. Words from Kalyn Kahler that stood out to me:
ARMSTRONG’S RUN ON Chicago hiring might end at two consecutive head coaches. There’s a new team president who replaced Phillips and has assumed control over football operations. Kevin Warren joined the Bears in the 2023 offseason, primarily to run point on building a new stadium. But Warren has yet to make his mark on football hiring in Chicago. The Bears declined to make Warren available for this story.
I can’t read that section above and not think that the strongest link between the Bears and the Trace Armstrong pipeline was former team president Ted Phillips. Perhaps this is a sign that his replacement, Kevin Warren, is actually enacting change at Halas Hall. At a minimum, it seems as if Chicago’s decision-makers are doing their best to distance themselves from something that clearly has not paid off in the ways they thought it would. Sometimes, learning a lesson the hard way is the only way.
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In the end, I hope you give the Kalyn Kahler ESPN story a read at some point today or over the weekend. It might put some different things into perspective for you.