No idea if there’s any truth to this, but one reason could be that he’s got his eyes on Joe Brady or Kellen Moore (or Matt Magy/Kliff Kingsbury). And they have enough inside information to know that their guy will be bringing staff along with him.
While filling the staff is a worry, if your HC brings half the staff from his playoff team with, you aren’t losing as much time.
If the Saints hire McCarthy or some other guy sitting at home right now after a long wait, that’s puts them in a big hole.
If you can do that, you’re right that a lot of the usual urgency isn’t necessary.
Bears have apparently locked in their 2 Coordinators.
Dennis Allen is a smart hire on paper for a lot of reasons already discussed. I have some worry because he seemed to have a near-mutiny brewing before his firing, but no one doubts his ability to coach a defense. And this Bears roster seems to need a little bit of a kick in the ass. Hopefully Johnson is the one setting the overall culture.
Declan Doyle is mostly a nobody but he’s supposedly highly respected by Sean Payton. He’s young and a fast riser, hopefully being a first time OC under Johnson isn’t too much for him. Hank Fraley was my white whale, so this one is a bit of a let down.
Some coaches do really well as coordinators but not head coaches (I’d guess most coordinators fall under that description). Kliff Kingsbury is one that comes to mind, Gus Bradley is another. So he might be a great choice at DC.
Agreed! Especially as that’s a big part of the HC’s job.
NBC Sports has a good summary of the carousel for 2024-2025 to date.
McCarthy surveyed the rubble after the carousel ground to a halt and couldn’t find a seat so he’s out for 2025. The Saints situation is poor (to say the least). Good to avoid that one. He’ll be inline for a mid season change but those are for collapsing teams as well. Better to start over. He’ll have to survive on some broadcasting bread crumbs for a while. (Note: wild conjecture on my part - and may be out of date. I just woke up and the Dope is my first stop for news).
I think the general consensus is that the Saints are passing on McCarthy, not the other way around.
McCarthy would be very lucky to get the Saints job I think. Yes, their situation is atrocious, but for an established coach like McCarthy I think that’s an advantage. When you’re negotiating you use those issues as leverage to get a bigger salary, more money up front and a longer contract. You also can get concessions on roster control. Basically telling them, you guys really fucked things up, I’m going to need a few years runway to get this thing turned around. You basically buy yourself some rope.
Also it helps that the Saints aren’t the clown show that most of the usual suspects are. Certainly Loomis can be a problem, but if you’re going to be saddled with a problematic GM I think I’d rather live with an overly aggressive and spendy one. Would you rather be in New Orleans or Cleveland, Jacksonville or Vegas with those owners?
Final thought, at some point Loomis’s song and dance will run its course. I would be somewhat surprised if Loomis gets another HC cycle if this one fails. At some point ownership will need to look in the mirror. And if you’re McCarthy there’s at least a chance that Loomis gets fired and you stay and have a hand in picking the next GM.
This is obviously a bunch of palace intrigue shit, no one really knows what the dynamics actually are, but my overall point is that I think it would be a big tactical mistake for McCarthy to tell the Saints to fuck off. Ergo, I don’t believe that he did.
Random additional thought.
While I would have been furious if the Bears signed McCarthy to be the HC, I think I’d be thrilled if they worked out a consulting type gig with him for next year. I can see him adding a lot of value to Johnson and team. Vrabel did something similar last season with Cleveland, and the Bears do need experienced football people in the room.
He’s made zero indications as far as I can tell, but if Andy Reid three-peats, he could potentially mic-drop retire. Spags might have the inside track on the position, but his head coaching record is quite poor to say the least.
I don’t know how important it is to Reid, but given 2-3 more seasons, he’ll surpass or come very close to passing Belichick on the all time wins list. And another season or more after that, taking the top overall spot.
If you’re willing to shoulder the burden, and they can accept the disclaimer that the next year (at least) will be a rebuild so you won’t see results immediately, you can potentially shape the entire team with your vision. It really is a potential opportunity for the right kind of coach. It’s also a massive gamble, because if it doesn’t work it’s all on you, and you might be coaching a high school team or joining a sports podcast in the case of a failure.
That’s a good point. And we know these guys have egos the side of Everest.
I feel like that’s true of every coaching gig. Might as well swing for the fences.
Agreed. As long as Mahomes is taking the snaps, I think that Reid is the head coach.
I suppose this news belongs here. The Bears are really taking this off-season’s housecleaning seriously. She was the longest tenured owner in the NFL and probably the longest in all professional sports. Certainly, the McCaskey’s aren’t precisely popular in Chicago these days, but at least they aren’t unpopular due to scandal which seems to be the norm these days.
While the team will almost certainly stay in the family in the immediate term, the structure of the inheritance is an open question. Does this lead to a change in the management of the team, perhaps with George moving into a different role? Do any of the other family members fight for a more prominent role now that Virginia is gone?
McCaskey had 11 children, eight sons and three daughters. She is survived by her sons Patrick, Edward Jr., George, Richard, Brian and Joseph, and daughters Ellen Tonquest, Mary and Anne Catron. She is also survived by 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
It’s not completely clear how the shares of the team are currently allocated. She supposedly had around 20% of the team, with Pat Ryan owning 20% as the only non-family member. The 11 kids and the two eldest grandkids have the balance in some proportion, assuming there wasn’t a previous consolidation. Pat Ryan supposedly has first right of refusal on any sales, so it’s possible that his stake could increase, though he’s 87 years old and it’s unclear if that right would confer to his heirs. The family and Ryan’s have been tight lipped over the years.
The NFL passed a new rule that allows Private Equity to buy into teams and there have been rumors that the Bears would use that to raise money to build a stadium. The team has always fallen outside of the league rules on ownership which require a single majority owner to have 30% at minimum but supposedly the NFL and Goodell have approved whatever their succession plan is.
I’m sure rumors of a sale of the team will be rampant and fans will probably be very excited about the possibility, but I say to be careful what you wish for. Pretty much everyone agrees that the family doesn’t have the coin you need to build the new stadium they are pining for without massive amounts of public funding. Whether her death is the thing that starts that boulder rolling downhill will be interesting to watch.
I thought this anecdote was interesting.
…she recalled attending the first playoff game in league history, when she was 9.
The Bears and Portsmouth Spartans finished the 1932 season in the first tie for first place, so the league added a game to determine a champion. Because of snow, the game was moved indoors to the old Chicago Stadium, and the Bears won 9-0 playing on an 80-yard field that came right to the walls.
“I remember I didn’t save my ticket stub, but one of my cousins had saved his,” McCaskey said. "We sat in the second balcony and the ticket price was $1.25.
“I took it to one of the Super Bowls to show [former commissioner] Pete Rozelle and then I don’t know what happened to it afterward,” she added. “But that’s OK.”
Wild times at Halas Hall.
This morning’s reports are that the Saints will be hiring Eagles OC Kellen Moore as their head coach, after the Super Bowl. They are being very cautious about tampering while Moore is still coaching an active team, in part because of the Cardinals being penalized for contacting Jonathan Gannon (then the Eagles’ DC) during a no-contact period, and in part because the Saints have a history of being investigated by the league.
I thought it was suspect that this news broke the day before the Super Bowl. It’s not exactly new news because Moore has been rumored to be the guy for a few weeks now, but this new report from Schefter and others sounds an awful lot like an unofficial official announcement. Who leaked this info and chose to do it now as opposed to waiting until Monday? What’s the motive for that?
FYI