One week remains in the Chicago Bears' season. For fans, it is the end of a painful death march that has included a Hail Mary loss, three brutal late-game collapses to their division rivals, and a ten-game losing streak that is less than a week away from hitting 11 in Green Bay. They just want it to be over. Then, something they can actually be interested in will start: the head coaching search. Plenty of names have been mentioned already, from Ben Johnson to Kliff Kingsbury and Brian Flores. However, the most interesting to pop up in the past week was Pete Carroll.
The future Hall of Famer seemed to retire after the end of last season, concluding an excellent run in Seattle that included ten winning seasons and a Super Bowl title. However, it appears the 73-year-old isn't done yet. Chicago has his attention. Is such an idea serious? Jeremy Fowler of ESPN offered fresh details on the This Is Football podcast.
Pete Carroll has a shot, but it sounds like he'll need a hell of a pitch.
That means detailing his plan for quarterback Caleb Williams, how he'd fix the locker room dysfunction, and what he is looking for from the front office. He would need to show the organization that his age should not be a concern. He is fully committed to the cause. Perhaps he can even offer some kind of succession plan for one of his assistant coaches. Truth be told, that feels like a tall order. As proven as Pete Carroll is, NFL teams simply aren't in the business of hiring coaches in their 70s. Bruce Arians was 67 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired him in 2019. Romeo Crennel was 73 when he got the Houston Texans job, but that was only on an interim basis, and he was fired after the season.
Unless the Bears are unsure about the younger options on the market or their ability to pick the right one, opting for Carroll seems like a long shot.
