One candidate for the Bears' HC opening is reportedly garnering 'strong reviews' but there's one major caveat he would have to answer for
With one game left in the 2024 season, things are about to start heating up on the NFL's head coach carousel.Right now, there are only three openings around the league in the Chicago Bears, New York Jets, and New Orleans Saints, but many more are expected to open up after this weekend's slate of games.The […]
With one game left in the 2024 season, things are about to start heating up on the NFL's head coach carousel.
Right now, there are only three openings around the league in the Chicago Bears, New York Jets, and New Orleans Saints, but many more are expected to open up after this weekend's slate of games.
The Jets have already been ahead of the game when it comes to interviewing candidates, but the Chicago Bears, who made the position available over a month ago, have starting doing some digging of their own.
According to NFL senior reporter Albert Breer, the Bears have already been in looking into one specific candidate who has prior connections already in the building. That candidate is Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator and former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Here's what Breer had to say about the potential fit on Monday.
"Another name connected to the position is Minnesota Vikings DC Brian Flores. He was a Boston College teammate of Poles in 2003, and the two have similar roots in the Bill Belichick system (Poles worked under Scott Pioli in Kansas City). I’m also told that Warren’s vetting of Flores with all his old connections in Minnesota (Warren worked for the Vikings for 15 years) yielded strong reviews for the 43-year-old. He will, of course, have to lay out a plan for how things would be different with Williams than they were with Tua Tagovailoa in Miami." – Albert Breer
Flores would definitely fit the "leader of men" archetype the Bears are searching for in their next head coach and would be able to have organizational alignment in Chicago given his history with Poles and Warren, who are collectively leading the search.
The only caveat is what Flores' plan will look like with quarterback Caleb Williams. Poles admitted after head coach Matt Eberflus was fired that the incoming head coach would have to have a plan in place for the team's franchise rookie quarterback. That doesn't mean the candidate has to be an offensive mind, which Flores is not, but there needs to at least be a plan.
That's what makes the final sentence of Breer's report the most interesting when it comes to Flores potentially being the next head coach of the Bears. In Miami, Flores had a 24-25 record and led the team to a 10-6 record in 2020. The downfall of his tenure with the Dolphins came from his relationship with the team's young quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa.
Earlier in the year, this is what Tagovailoa had to say about the difference between Flores as his head coach and current Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel.
"If you woke up every morning and I told you [that] you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'Dude, you are the best fit for this,'" Tagovailoa said. "How would it make you feel listening to one or the other?"
Clearly, a lot went wrong between those two and it's easy to see why the Bears would want to have Flores lay out a plan for how he will handle things differently if he were to lead a team with Williams at quarterback. But, people can change and learn from their mistakes. Here's what Flores had to say after hearing Tagovailoa's comments.
"I think part of coaching is correcting," Flores said. "I'm always going to correct. I'm always going to have a high standard. I've done a lot of reflecting on the situation, reflecting on the situation and communication. I think there's things that I could do better for sure, and I've grown in that way, and I've tried to apply the things that I could do better and the things that I've learned over the last two, three years…
"I want to make that same kind of impact, positive impact, pour into young people," he added. "Helping them become the best versions of themselves. And that's really my goal, always at coaching."
He's certainly someone who wants to prove that he's not that kind of person anymore if given the opportunity to become a head coach again. If he can help clear everything up to Warren and Poles and have a strong offensive coordinator, he would be a strong candidate to consider.
His dominate defense and the culture he's helped create in Minnesota keeps giving him more looks at another head coach position, but we'll see if he can convince the Bears he's the right man for the job in Chicago.
Ben Johnson’s latest audition at Soldier Field in Week 16 should make the rest of the Bears’ head coaching search an easy process
No need to overthink this decision.
