Bear Digest

Why Bobby Slowik job interview could only benefit the Bears

Analysis: Sitting down with former Houston offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik could greatly reward the Bears even if they're not able to hire him as offensive coordinator.

Gene Chamberlain

Texans offensive cooridnator Bobby Slowik on the sidelines during his team's 2024 preseason game against the Bears.
Texans offensive cooridnator Bobby Slowik on the sidelines during his team's 2024 preseason game against the Bears. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
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A name everyone who follows football has become available to the Bears as they're forming their coaching staff and he needs to be included in their search.

They may not want to hire Bobby Slowik or maybe they would, but the Bears need to have him come in and talk at length while he's not affiliated with a team.

Slowik probably will get scooped up right away for an offensive coordinator job with one of the remaining teams still without a coordinator. His offense helped the Texans make the playoffs two straight years.

However, he was fired Friday in shocking move. It was surprising because of how much success C.J. Stroud had in 2023 as a rookie under Slowik before he took a step back in terms of statistics in 2024.

It's possible any number of reasons led to the firing, and perhaps Demeco Ryans had someone else in mind he likes better or there was something personal involved.

Regardless, the Bears need to get him in for an interview in order to get his football information, so to speak.

They need to pick his brain about how he brought Stroud along so quickly because their own rookie quarterback experience in 2024 with Caleb Williams was nothing close to what the Texans saw from Stroud in his rookie year.

If Williams had shown no talent, it would be one thing. But he has flashed brilliance and the Bears need any help they can get in reversing Williams' Year 1 struggles.

On the other hand, they should get Slowik in just in case he doesn't get an offer from a team to be play caller for 2025.

Slowik could do much worse than work for Johnson organizing the offense. It could be educational for him, as well, because Johnson had tremendous sustained offensive success for three years but Slowik's offense fell off to 19th in scoring and 22nd in yardage after they were 13th in scoring and 12th in yardage in 2023.

One of the major reasons for Houston’s decline was injuries and a team that made such a dramatic turnaround from one year to the next isn’t going to have as much depth as well-established teams. Texans offensive line coach Chris Strausser is no longer with the team after they gave up 52 sacks, the third most, in 2024. Whether the Slowik firing had something to do with Strausser's situation isn't known.

Regardless, Slowik was good enough to help the Texans win a playoff game twice and do it one year with a rookie QB and the second year with a second-year QB.

It would be worth the interview and hire under the right circumstances.

They had a lot of interviews in recent weeks that had far less of a chance at success.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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.