Bears Coaching Search – We’ve Ridden This Train Before

It is January 12th, 2025. I wake up to the vibration of my phone on the nightstand to my left and ignore it as I adjust my position, get comfortable under the covers, and pass a little gas (to my wife’s dismay). Another vibration, then another….. and another. The texts are coming in early and often this morning, so there must have been some big breaking news. 39 messages in the Better Luck Next Time chat!

I roll over and open the chat to a video of Ian Rapoport reporting that Tom Brady, the minority owner of the Raiders, is hot in his pursuit of Ben Johnson. Nothing new about this news amidst the hundreds of X reports that BJ is likely between the Bears and Raiders, but the texts “I’m sick to my stomach” and “It’s over.” from our good friend (Michigan Man for anonymity) stand out to me. Now to his credit, he was probably the first Bears fan to pull the plug on Fields and Flus and was correct in his assessment of both very early on. Those texts are also probably indicative of the majority of Bears fans’ feelings/expectations that our FO and ownership can never be trusted after burning us relentlessly since Lovie (minus 2018-19’s lightning in a bottle season).

While I don’t have a whole lot of trust in the FO and even less trust in ownership, we’ve been through this before. Trestman, Fox, Nagy, Flus, and now this year – we know how it goes. Reports come out and fans flip out about every little thing because we have to wait until the playoffs come to an end while most of the top candidates are fighting for a trip to the Super Bowl. We generally get divided into a few different camps: the majority of people on one “can’t miss” coach, and others who already assume we won’t get our Golden Goose so they set their sights on various back-up options.

Loving the Golden Goose (Ben Johnson right now) is a dangerous game to play because when the Bears inevitably Bears and don’t connect, we expect the worst and look for the first signs of the back-up option’s imperfection to blow out of proportion and yell about in order to save ourselves from the disappointment of not meeting our high expectations or hopes for the team. I will ask though – when is the last time the Bears job was the most enticing opening like it is this year? If you answered never, you would be correct. Taking it a step further, when is the last time anyone across the league was worried about the RAIDERS? At least in my lifetime, that answer is also never and that hasn’t changed this year. I would argue the Raiders might be the least exciting job opening right now, but if that isn’t the case in your mind, I hope we can agree that it would be the 2nd least exciting.

King YABO let me know he was impressed by how level-headed and calm I’ve been heading into this off-season. I’ll tell you all how: we’ve been here before. We’ve been here before, BUT with question marks littering the roster ESPECIALLY at QB. This year that is not the case. Despite a brutal performance this season, we have as much offensive talent as we’ve had since Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and Matt Forte were our dogs. The defense fell off hard after our DC who was cosplaying as HC was canned mid-season but we know we’ve got a solid base to build from and lots of money to play with.

I think we land Ben Johnson – there’s too much logic pointing to him wanting and accepting our HC role; but if we don’t, who’s to say we can’t still improve? We had a coach who was afraid to talk to the players when a hard conversation was needed and who refused to admit to his mistakes. If we get a coach who is a strong leader in the locker room and doesn’t bullshit himself when looking back at his failures, we’ve already turned that corner and are going to see improvement. Nobody expects us to contend for a Super Bowl next year, but after 4 and 5 win seasons and a 2nd year Caleb breakout hopefully looming, I think there are several coaches who can fight for a wild card spot. Even if we end up falling just short, it would still be a positive step for this team. The bar is low right now, so I’m not scared of not getting THE head coach we “need”. How bad would Marcus Freeman, Todd Monken, or even Pete Carroll be? The answer is better than the last 4 guys.

Do I sound delusional in saying that? Sound off in the comments if so, but right now us fans need to loosen the nooses and slip them off our heads because we have no control over what is about to happen. And also we have Caleb Williams (did you know of the 60 sacks he took, he AVOIDED 50 more?!). It’s a long 8 months before we get to the 2025 season, but we’ve been on this ride before – strap in and trust your eyes that this time around is different than what we’ve gotten used to over the last decade – the signs are all there.

Siri, please play “Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler (applicable banger, if you actually turn it on at this point I love you and also you’re about to get so fired up).

Cakes