As the Chicago Bears move through interviews, what will a new GM and coach inherit? Pros and cons in 4 areas, including what the team has at QB Justin Fields.

In the week since firing general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy, Chicago Bears President George McCaskey has inched his way up in his schedule to interview more than two dozen candidates to replace them.

As the five-man Bears search committee narrows down its options, it will also sell what the franchise has to offer to GM and the next coach. Six other teams are looking for a coach, and three more are trying to find a GM.

So what exactly is the allure of the Bears job, and what will be the downside for the next GM and coach?

Here are four main categories to consider: midfield, rest of the roster, assets, and intangibles.

The Four Guardians

What the Bears have in midfield can be explained after Justin Fields’ rocky rookie season in which he completed 58.9% of his passes for 1,870 yards with seven touches ball, 10 interceptions and a passing index of 73.2. He was fired 36 times, fumbled 12 times and dashed for 420 meters and two touches on the ball.

A simple look at Fields’ stats for 10 starts isn’t encouraging, but it also doesn’t take into account a host of outside circumstances affecting his play.

Fields was out of rep with the starters in training camp, a setback when he was pushed into the first game in Week 3 because of Andy Dalton’s knee injury. Attack line issues and questionable game plans have put Fields in a bad position on some of his warm-ups. The reception team is very thin, especially when Allen Robinson has a poor record and faces health problems. And Fields development was disrupted at the end of the year due to injury and COVID-19.

The Fields stats also don’t fully show the talent on display against the San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers or the competitiveness that Bears coaches say he has run.

He’s shown that there are coaches and GMs who think the right guidance can make him a star. Whether those people are the top Bears contenders remains to be seen.

During his press conference last week, McCaskey was determined to make the Bears’ standards for vacancies as public as possible, and that included declining to say whether the candidates held a conservative view. about whether Fields is disqualified or not.

“We’ll be very interested in hearing from general manager and head coach candidates about their plans to get the most out of the quarterback for us,” McCaskey said.

Still, it seems logical that the next Bears leaders have faith in what they can do with Fields.

List

Along with Fields, the Bears have a core of good young players who are returning.

Wide spotter Darnell Mooney topped 1,000 yards in his second season and has a work ethic to make coaches believe he’s on the upswing.

Full-back Jaylon Johnson was a key player in defense after he racked up one intercept, nine saves, a forced fumble and 46 tackles in his second season.

Rerun David Montgomery missed four games with a knee injury but still dashed for 849 yards and seven touchdowns and made 42 301-meter catches in his third season. Rookie rerun Khalil Herbert filled in nicely while Montgomery was eliminated. And by the end of his sophomore year, Cole Kmet still had growth ahead of him but took it a step further with 60 catches from 612 yards.

The Bears also brought some fierce veterans into the defence, starting with the line-ups outside Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn and the full-back inside Roquan Smith. Mack has missed 10 games with a foot injury this season, but Quinn and Smith were named the All-Pro second-place team.

However, the Bears also have some big holes to fill and questions to address.

On the offense front, the wide receiver is the most pressing position with Robinson likely to head to the company for free after playing on the franchise card this season and Pro Bowl return/receiver Jakeem Grant, Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd are also set to become free agents. Kmet will be the only one ending his contract at the start of the new league year.

The Bears question the offensive line with veteran tackles from Jason Peters and Germain Ifedi and secure James Daniels as a free agent. They must decide whether the 2021 draft pick by Steven Jenkins and Larry Borom is the answer in a position of resolution or whether they need to add other options.

Defensively, starting lineups Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols, safety Tashaun Gipson and inside full-back Alec Ogletree are said to be free guys, and the Bears need to consider who they want in the outer corner and nickel after some performance issues this season.

Overall, there’s a lot to do on the list. A new GM will be able to operate without the loyalty Pace may have felt for some of the players he has drafted and signed, and that could make for some interesting decisions. taste in the coming months.

assets

One of the sacrifices Pace made to get Fields in 11th place in the 2021 draft was trading this year’s first- and fourth-round picks to the New York Giants.

That left the Bears to pick in Rounds 2, 3, 5, and 6. They had the extra pick in the fifth round that they got on the Anthony Miller wide receiver trade and the seventh round pick against the Houston Texans.

In terms of their financial situation, the Bears are in the upper half of the league in terms of salary cap, with a projected league cap of $208.2 million.

Based on spotrac.com, the Bears are expected to have about $34.6 million in cap space as the new league year begins, ranking 13th in the NFL. And of course there is still the possibility of maneuvering with contract cuts and restructurings.

With all of the aforementioned holes to fill, the Bears can run through their cap space quickly. However, if Fields, Jenkins and/or Borom become the players Pace envisions, it will help the Bears have rookie contract starters in often expensive positions.

Invisible

For all discussions about dysfunction at Halas Hall over the past decade – and there’s a lot going on from the point of view of how to run the franchise from the top, starting with McCaskey – there are also some quirks to GM’s work and the coach that can make them appealing. than.

First, the new GM will report directly to McCaskey, who tries to remind everyone that he is “just a fan” and “not a football evaluator”. While that approach is questionable from an outside perspective, it could be appealing to an executive who values ​​freedom of decision-making.

New employees will also be introduced to a recently renovated and expanded Halas Hall. Pace was the driving force in the facility upgrades and additional space that has been very helpful during COVID-19 and enabled the team to host a training camp in the Lake Forest.

And then there’s the Chicago market, which boasts an avid fan base and hunger for success as their team has a playoff win in 15 years.

Nagy – whose job has been the subject of fan and media speculation for over a year – can certainly prove difficult going up against a mediocre team in such an environment. . But one coach and GM only needs to look back four years from the 2018 season to see what the flaming Bears fanbase looks like.

And that team didn’t even win a playoff. Visualize the possibilities.