What About Jon Gruden as a Bears Head Coaching Candidate? ...Middle East

Jon Gruden’s name has seemingly come out of nowhere to become a popular one for teams looking for a new head coach.

Earlier in the week, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero mentioned in a conversation with Peter Schrager on “Good Morning Football” that “multiple teams” have looked into Gruden as a possible head coach option. Since then, A.J. Perez (Front Office Sports) has reported that Gruden is “expected to be one of the ‘hot’ candidates” for teams searching for a new head coach this offseason. In a more recent video (this time with Rich Eisen), Pelissero mentions the Jets and Saints as teams with head coach openings who have Gruden on their radar.

For what it’s worth, Pelissero did not make a connection with the Chicago Bears as a potential landing spot for Jon Gruden. However, anecdotally, I feel as if Gruden’s name is the one I have been asked most about among coaching options who aren’t Ben Johnson or any of the other rumored candidates. And, ultimately, it made me think about if Gruden would make sense as a Bears candidate.

Jon Gruden isn’t a fit for the Chicago Bears in 2025 (or ever)

Jon Gruden’s coaching résumé isn’t without its strengths. He won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and led the Oakland Raiders to their most recent stretch of extended relevance from 1998 to 2001. With that being said, Gruden hasn’t had a winning season as a head coach since 2008, hasn’t led his team to the postseason since 2007, and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2002.

Sure, I realize that Gruden spent a chunk of those years working as an analyst on Monday Night Football and hasn’t coached in the NFL since 2021. But still … it is impossible to ignore the evidence at hand. Because while Gruden’s résumé looks good, the reality is that it was built mostly during a stretch from 2000-2005. A lot has changed in the NFL since then, to say the least.

And yet, I cannot bring myself to consider Jon Gruden as a worthwhile candidate for the Bears’ vacancy at head coach.

For all of the chatter about culture and the need to tighten things up at Halas Hall, there is no way I can wrap my mind around Gruden making sense as a Bears head coaching candidate. And I struggle to understand how anyone can come to the conclusion that he should be. Gruden left his post as Las Vegas Raiders head coach in 2021 after he used racist tropes in an email about then-NFLPA leader DeMaurice Smith and a homophobic slur to disparage NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Given Gruden’s past and Bears Chairman George McCaskey’s place on the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee, this is probably a non-starter. And that is probably a good thing.

All things considered, the Bears can find a better head coaching candidate than Jon Gruden.

If they want to go with a second-chance candidate, Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll stand out as worthwhile options who are worth interviewing. Vrabel has already begun his interviews (the New York Jets landed the first interview with the former Titans coach) and is reportedly on the Bears’ wish list. Meanwhile, Carroll’s interest in the Bears gig has been on our radar since last week. The interest is reportedly mutual (at least, it is on some level).

Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores is someone who figures to be a coach who piques the Bears’ interest, too. If you’ll recall, Flores interviewed for the vacancy in 2022 before it went to Matt Eberflus. The Bears were “very smitten” with Flores at the time. I wonder how seriously they’d consider him this time around. Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Mike McCarthy reportedly has an interest in the Bears gig, but his fit in Chicago is questionable (for an entirely different set of reasons).

In other words, there are at least three former NFL head coaches I’d consider as good fits for the Bears before I think about Jon Gruden.

If the Bears are looking for an offensive-leaning candidate, there is no shortage of intriguing options. Detroit Lions Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson is the highest-profile name among offensive-minded head coach candidates expected to be on Chicago’s interview wish list. But you can’t ignore the likes of Kliff Kingsbury (Washington Commanders OC), Joe Brady (Buffalo Bills OC), Liam Coen (Tampa Bay Buccaneers OC), and Zac Robinson (Atlanta Falcons OC).

The more I look at the list of candidates, the less I think of Jon Gruden being someone worth mentioning as a fit for the Chicago Bears. But clearly, there are some NFL teams that are willing to explore the idea of bringing Gruden back into the fold. The way I see it, the Bears should be happy to let those teams deal with any blowback to having an interest in Gruden. Chicago’s football team has an opportunity to do something with the clean slate that a new head coach hire provides. Using it to employ Jon Gruden in 2025 isn’t the best use of it.

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