Carolina Panthers Seek Bears Permission to Interview Champ Kelly
If the Bears are going to part ways with general manager Ryan Pace after this season, it's possible they could also lose the chance to keep one prime replacement candidate.
The Carolina Panthers have put in a request to interview Bears assistant player personnel director Champ Kelly about their vacant general manager position, according to a report by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Last spring Kelly had an interview for the vacant New York Jets general manager job without getting it.
Kelly initially served under Pace in 2015-16 as Bears director of pro scouting. He has had the assistant player personnel position since 2017.
Kelly is a very experienced personnel man in all aspects and a step up with either the Bears or another team now wouldn't be a reach.
From 2007-14, he was with the Denver Broncos, the last five seasons as assistant director of pro personnel. He was a regional scout initially for Denver and then for two years was assistant coordinator of pro and college scouting.
Because of his ties to Denver, it wouldn't be surprising if Kelly received an interview for that team's general manager position. John Elway announced on Monday that he would be stepping down from his GM role and would be the president of football operations.
Nothing has been said about Pace's fate, or coach Matt Nagy's for that matter, but replacing the head coach after making the playoffs two out of three years would seem an unusual move to say the least.
However, Pace has been in charge of the Bears football product for six years and they have had one winning season even if they've had two playoff berths. He also is tagged with the controversial trade up to draft Mitchell Trubisky.
Speculation has been building that the Bears might hire Chiefs director of football operations Mike Borgonzi as a GM and would dump Pace, but there has been no actual confirmation this is the case.
The Bears were 14-34 in Pace's first three seasons as GM, then he received a contract extension through 2021. The team is 28-20 in the three years since his extension.
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