DABEARSDABOMB

I like what I've read about Ed Dobbs. Dude has that fire and passion and seems to have a relentless expectation / standard for greatness. He backs the talk up with an impressive resume, doing a nice job with Colts prior to a very successful tenure building up the Seahawks. He's very high on my list (not that it matters).

Harbaugh's name will never show up on the list until after. Bears don't have a tracker that they put up. None of us will know of the Harbaugh stuff until after and it will all be rumor. Either way - one thing I know for sure - Harbaugh will either get a contract extension and pay raise at Michigan because of this or he's getting an NFL job.

They don't announce it - the agents of the coaches do and they leak it to media reporters. This isn't anything odd - every single team has this happen. And just like that - some very good teams have HC's who have final say and roster control and other real good teams are structured the other way. There is no right way to do it in this regard (no data shows one works better than the other at this point in the NFL). Similarly - on everyone clammoring for a president - the president is just another way of saying GM depending on the org. Tribune and other media outlets had some real good articles on it about a week or two ago talking about the different structures, but reality is more in how you pay your people and how many people in the building. One of the biggest changes under Pace was the Bears literally trippled the amount of front office people they had (greatly increasing their resources to be much more in-line with how more modern orgs are structured vs. historical org that was very small).

I don't know anyone better he could listen to. He has ran 3 orgs which successfully made it to the Superbowl (Bills, Panthers, and Colts). I think anyone complaining about Polian being involved is nitpicking (but is entitled to that opinion). Either way - I fully expect Bears are going to swing big at Harbaugh. Only question is will they swing big enough and will he actually be interested in moving over.

By the way - Brian Daboll's Bills unit has ranked the following over past 2 years. This included a stretch this year where they struggled and you wondered, did the league catch up to them (and maybe they did). But he showed me real moxy in terms of how the offense morphed in 2nd half of the year and adjusted and came out of it a stronger unit. This is an offense that outscoured the Chiefs each of the last 2 years and he obviously gets a ton of credit for developing a QB in Allen (quite frankly Fields skill set and limitations are somewhat similar to Allen - with exception that Fields didn't have the same accuracy issues Allen had to overcome). 21-22: #5 in the league in yards/game and #3 in the league in points/game. 20-21: #2 in points/game

These are requests - this doesn't mean they will actually interview everyone. But do you want a GM to get hired, than you make formal requests and have nothing scheduled and so you have to get on the calendar with guys who already have 5 or 6 interviews lined up? Or would you rather be hired as the GM - look at the list knowing everything is lined up and now he just has to prioritize, and add or remove names from the list, but at least has a leg up. If it were me - I would much prefer having a good starting point knowing I could hit the ground running than having to start from scratch. Might save a few days in the process. It would be different to me if George is meeting with all of the people on this list without having a GM. That would not make sense to me. Reality is - how you do this will differ. You can hire the HC first or the GM first. There are certain HC's that to get them, they will need to be the first hire. For example - Harbaugh is not coming here without having a hand picked GM. He isn't going to get Balked' again. Flores is probably in that same boat - where he isn't coming to work for a GM - he is the main hire and will have control and hand pick his GM.

Bears request permission to interview Brian Flores, former Dolphins coach. Good article on his dismissal from the team. Really went back to a power struggle between him and GM (which he evidently lost). And the below article isn't overly flattering of Flores. His results are good - but he went through multiple DC's and OC's in each year he was there. I like fact that he holds people to a high standard - but at same time - I imagine he rubs a ton of people wrong way and that is the problem with the BB style. It is hard to be BB when you don't have the cred he has (he has ring(s) to his name and thus people will listen). https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article256841207.html

I think with almost all of the candidates, they can't actually interview them until next week (and even than I don't know if that is the case or not). So this is more I think getting the plumbing set-up (maybe there are certain candidates they want to interview first because they would want to pick the GM (so inverse) so that could be by design. But my gut was this was more of a - we are going to interview GM's fast and try to get that done soon, but in meantime, lets get a pipeline of candidates lined up so that when the GM comes in, he can validate/add names, but know that at least 80% of the right names are on there and the new GM can operate with the right speed from there. If instead the new GM is going to be held to that list - yeah - that would be a disaster, but my presumption is that will not be the case. Fact that they are interviewing a lot of experienced GM's would also imply to me that they intend to hand the reigns over to that experienced individual.

Bears request permission to interview Colts Asst GM/VP of Player Personell - Ed Dobbs. 2nd Colts GM request (to go along with 2 Browns GM requests). Prior to working with Ballard (since 2017) - he spent 10 years with Seahawks and played a crucial role building up their super bowl squad. Very strong resume.

Bears request permission to interview Colts DC Matt Eberflus. I don't know much about him - but Colts D has been outstanding for last few years. He is also no the Jags interview list.

Decent article on one of the Browns candidates Kwesi Adofo Mensah. He has a different backgrond than many GM's today, but so does Mickey Loomis (Saints) and Howie Roseman (Eagles). It all depends on how you structure your front office. https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/new-vp-of-football-ops-kwesi-adofo-mensah-knows-what-it-takes-to-win-ready-to-wo

If there is anything the annual coaching carousel will tell me - most of all of these names will inevitably fail. Sometimes it may not have anything to do with them, it could be they have a bad roster, face uphill battles from injuries, etc. I do think in the short windows these coaches have - the reality is - there is more than just their individual capabilities that ultimately decide whether they are successful or not (it is a tough life - being an NFL HC). But in general - there aren't a lot of people on the list who I would shake my head at if they got hired. Reality is - George was right on one thing, no one is going to trust that they got it right until you see real production out on the field. W/L's; Progression from Justin Fields (or whomever the QB is), Development of young players, etc.

Updated master list at the top too. Pretty comprehensive list - interested to see whether they reach out to McDaniels. I would reach out to him, if for no other reason, than to get his views on his vision and what he would do, how he would design things around Fields (or would he NOT design things around him, etc).

Yeah - He was evidently pretty key in those drafts picks - supposedly has a very good eye for oline talent. In general - Colts have drafted really well. Bears also officially request permission to interview Rick Smith (former Texans GM) and Jeff Ireland (Saints Asst GM and former Dolphins GM; Plus past jobs with Cowboys). Pretty happy with the list of names I'm seeing thus far. One other item to point out - many front office people do not have agents (they rep themselves) and usually it is agents that leak these requests, so there are likely other candidates whose names just haven't popped out.

I am curious what people think of Pederson. On one hand - I get it, Nagy was his good friend and he brings similar system. On other hand I thought he was the jerk in Philly that rubbed people wrong way but I read some stories that basically said he was the extremely nice guy who got crapped on by the owner and Roseman for 4 years who finally got pushed too much. His offenses were pretty good with exception to final year and at some point he decided Wentz wasn’t his guy but got a lot out of him early in his career. Also played some role in Hurts developing and seemingly tailored his offenses (Wentz to Foles). That said I never know how much was Doug vs Reich and DeFillipo. I will also point out Doug did run the football a bit too. Hard to argue the success he had during majority of his tenure.

The Bears have requested interviews with Browns VP of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and VP of player personnel Glenn Cook for their vacant GM job, per source. — Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 11, 2022

List of candidates the Bears have officially requested permission to interview (I will update): Role HC Candidate Name Team Interview Date DC Leslie Frazier Buffalo Bills Sunday 1/16 HC Doug Pederson Ex-Philadelphia Eagles Wednesday 1/12 (DONE) OC Brian Daboll Buffalo Bills TBA OC Nathaniel Hackett Green Bay Packers Saturday 1/15 DC Todd Bowles Tampa Bay Buccaneers TBA OC Byron Leftwich Tampa Bay Buccaneers TBA DC Matt Eberflus Indianapolis Colts Monday 1/17 DC Dan Quinn Dallas Cowboys Late Next Week HC Brian Flores Miami Dolphins Friday 1/14

Figured I'd make a thread where we could track who the candidates are that they have formerly requested permission, etc. I will update this shortly (but wanted to put it somewhere): Kwesi Adofo-Mensah - Browns VP of football operations Glenn Cook - Browns VP of player personnel Morocco Brown - Colts Rick Smith - Former Texans GM (retired due to personal reasons - in early 50's and coming back after his wife passed away from cancer) Jeff Ireland - New Orleans Asst GM & College Scouting Director; Former GM for Dolphins - infamously known for his pre-draft interview w/ Dez Bryant. Ed Dodds - Colts VP of Player Personnel

I thought i heard Tua and Flores didn't get along and there might have been other rights. Flores might also be right, but that was the spin coming out today (but very much tainted and one sided). From a results perspective - I thought Flores accomplished a lot despite mediocre to poor QB play. I would say though that they didn't handle Tua very well at all. He was in games, than not in games, the whole Fizmagic to Tua, etc - definitely not the best / most seamless way to integrate a top QB into your team.

Someone else was faster than me - looks like you are all set. Thank you to whichever mod did that

It sounds like the lockeroom might have been a disaster.

Let me figure it out - we'll make that change happen.

Are you confusing Champ Kelly and Champ Bailey? But in general - as much as I here good things about Kelly, I'm looking outside of the org for the next hire at GM.

Thought this was interesting - one because he is a really good candidate, but 2 the timing. Seemed quick given they are likely to focus on a GM first. The only reason you would want to fast track some of the coaches might be because there are a few you think you might move on before you hire a GM (i.e., Harbaugh).

You are right - it isn't a huge difference, maybe you just get an individual in that president role who is more of an engaged adviser while the GM handles the real work (so think of it more from a workload/how much are you going to committ type of role). But to your point - it isn't done a ton in the NFL and certainly isn't mandatory for success. I get that fans are upset that Ted will be involved in the process - but to me - they got rid of the 2 main people they needed to plus directly shifted the role so that the GM is the football person (he doesn't report into Ted or anyone other than the owner, in this case George). I got what I wanted, by and large. Now they will probably get it wrong, but they did the right things today (whether they won the press conference or not).