The Chicago Bears have been the NFL’s busiest team through the first week or so of the 2025 head coaching cycle. General manager Ryan Poles has a list of candidates so long it’s almost embarrassing .
Bears fans are unfortunately used to ridicule. Past double doinks that turn into current Hail Marys seem to be turning into a circus for Chicago’s future head coach. It never ends.
And neither is the daily alert of another coaching candidate who interviewed virtually or in person for the Bears job.
Here is an updated list of coaches, or in the case of Broncos consultant David Shaw, executives who have interviewed so far:
Mike Vrabel, former Titans head coach
Thomas Brown, interim head coach of the Bears
Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver
Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka
Pete Carroll, former Seahawks head coach
Drew Petzing, Cardinals offensive coordinator
Ben Johnson, Lions offensive coordinator
Aaron Glenn, Lions defensive coordinator
Ron Rivera, former Panthers and commanders, headvertising coach
David Shaw, Broncos senior personnel executive
From this list, only Vrabel was eliminated. He is now the head coach of the New England Patriots.
Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy will be added to that list on Wednesday. We are aware that several candidates have pending interview requests, including Joe Brady (OC, Bills), Todd Monken (OC, Ravens) and Brian Flores (DC, Vikings), among others.
No one knows how long it will take the Poles and the Chicago Bears to decide who they want to hire, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry. To be fair, the Bears are limited in their aggressiveness toward prospects like Johnson and Monken, whose respective teams advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs.
McCarthy is the Bears coaching candidate to watch. He will be in Halas Hall for an in-person interview, which has not been the case for most of the interviews conducted thus far. He has a history of building winning programs and developing quarterbacks, two staples of Chicago’s coaching demands.
Perhaps McCarthy will leave a strong impression on the Poles and end the wait. Maybe he won’t. What we do know is that the Bears have no shortage of names to consider as their coaching search continues.
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