People Inside NFL Revealed Who They Think Chicago Bears Hire

The Chicago Bears have not telegraphed who they might be aiming to hire as head coach in the slightest for weeks now. Their list of candidates just hit 20 with the news of Adam Stenavich and Mike McCarthy getting requests. Everybody believes Ben Johnson is the guy, but their search suggests they are wide open to being convinced otherwise. Fans clearly want the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator. The media is split on the subject, swaying from Johnson to McCarthy and elsewhere. An interesting question is what people inside the league itself think.

Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic worked to find an answer. He reached out to several people across the league to help form a picture of how they think the coaching carousel would unfold. They believe Johnson ultimately falls for Tom Brady's charms and goes to Las Vegas. Aaron Glenn will return home to New Orleans, and Brian Flores will return to the AFC East in New York. So what about the Bears? The belief is they will opt for somebody with a proven track record who has the best chance to make them competitive immediately.

It is a name fans know well.

These predictions are based on conversations with sources from around the league, as well as my opinions about what each team might be looking for.

Chicago Bears: Pete Carroll...

...If the Bears are looking for a proven leader, there isn’t a better candidate than Carroll. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is the sexiest name of this cycle (as he was for the last one), but nobody knows what sort of leader he’ll be as a head coach. Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is an obvious candidate because of his ties to Williams from USC, but Kingsbury was underwhelming as the Arizona Cardinals head coach. Ron Rivera has past experience and was a winner in Carolina, but the Commanders struggled under his watch.

Yes, Carroll is 73, but he is known for his youthful energy. He had a great run in Seattle, never winning fewer than seven games in a season, making the playoffs 10 times in 14 years and winning the Super Bowl in 2013.

The Bears will be tempted by Johnson and Kingsbury, but I think they ultimately land on the coach best suited to turn Chicago into a winner as soon as 2025.

The Chicago Bears hiring Carroll would be a safe, short-term solution.

There is no question the man can coach. He's been a winner for the past quarter century. In the mid-2000s, he turned USC into a college football dynasty before heading to Seattle, where he brought the Seahawks their first Super Bowl championship. In his 27 years as a head coach, Carroll has only four losing seasons to his name. The guy is a proven winner. If this were a decade ago, it wouldn't even be a discussion. Chicago would have every reason in the world to hire him. Alas, it isn't that simple.

No NFL head coach has ever won a Super Bowl in his 70s. Carroll turns 74 in September. How much longer does he have before retirement inevitably comes? The Chicago Bears have no way of knowing. A decision to hire him feels like it would be nothing more than a short-term solution. GM Ryan Poles is on unstable ground. He needs a winning season in the worst way. Carroll seems to offer the best chance to make that happen. He's developed young quarterbacks before, like Carson Palmer and Russell Wilson. So, he will likely have a good plan for Caleb Williams.

It's not perfect, but it is at least understandable.