Bear Digest

Bears' search should aspire to a fresh face on the cutting edge

Analysis: Looking into Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll or Mike McCarthy is a bit like looking at a history book and the Bears should be trying to find someone on the cusp of big things.
Gene Chamberlain|
Mike Tomlin would have, no doubt, been a Bears upgrade but no playoff wins since 2016 suggests something.
Mike Tomlin would have, no doubt, been a Bears upgrade but no playoff wins since 2016 suggests something. | Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

When the Pittsburgh Steelers' season ended as it always does, in playoff defeat, linebacker Patrick Queen was asked what happened.

"I think we just got too comfortable," Queen told reporters. "Started chasing too many things. I think we just let off the pedal, in all seriousness. ... That's why we're in the position that we're in."

This is the kind of thing that happens when good teams become stale, and most often it's time for a coaching change because the message isn't getting through.

It's a tough call when it has happened but after it repeats over and over again, it's the Marty Schottenheimer effect. It's a winning coach who can stick around 11 years without winning a playoff game.

Nothing good is going to happen in the future in this case.

When Adam Schefter reported Saturday that the Bears sought to trade for Tomlin, it looked like they're really making a bold attempt to improve.

When you're at the bottom of the league and trying to move up, someone mired in the second tier of teams looks highly successful.

The Bears should aspire to something better than a coach who used to have success but now repeatedly comes up short against the Ravens or the Bengals or even the Browns in the AFC North.

This looks like someone trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.

As great as Tomlin is supposed to be, and current and former players swear by him, his teams haven't won a playoff game since 2016.

This might sound familiar because it should.

The Bears interviewed Pete Carroll. None of his Seahawks teams after 2016 won a playoff game.

The Bears flew in Mike McCarthy. He has one playoff win since 2016.

That's an eight-year period when these pillars of success from the last decade or two haven't taken the next step because they've been blocked by Andy Reid/Patrick Mahomes or young Sean McVay or Tom Brady. Their teams and approaches become stale in the process. They might succeed to small degrees but they can't push forward to bigger things.

Even Denver's Sean Payton has only one playoff win since 2018.

There's a clump of these coaches who have fallen into a sub grouping below the league's best, able to stick around because there are a lot of incompetent organizations in the league—like the Bears.

The Bears should be looking to find their own version of the young Mike Tomlin, the young Mike McCarthy, or Pete Carroll. That's why looking at Joe Brady or Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn or even the coach they interview on Saturday, Brian Flores, is important. Flores had his potential big step forward cut off before it happened in Miami. He could still be the young Tomlin.

Their goal must be finding their own version of McVay, or Dan Campbell, or Kevin O'Connell. They need the next young force rising with energy in the league. Looking at yesterday's newspapers isn't a serious approach to winning, it just shows how desperate you've become.

This might be tough to realize when your franchise's most successful moment in the last 14 years is one that ended with a ball hitting iron twice on the same play, but it is sustained success the Bears say they seek. At least that's what Ryan Poles said.

Give the Bears credit for leaving no stone unturned with Tomlin, but sustained success isn't achieved when the tube is almost empty.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.