Good morning, friends!

Cross Mike Vrabel off the list, Bears fans. The ex-Tennessee Titans head coach felt like the front-runner for the vacancy in New England the minute the Patriots fired Jerod Mayo, and on Sunday, the organization one year removed from parting ways with Bill Belichick made it official.

The attention in Chicago shifts almost solely to Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who interviewed with the Bears via video conference on Saturday morning but won’t be able to visit Lake Forest for a second interview for a while.

If the Lions win next week? Push back any hope for another interview until Jan. 27. If the Lions win the NFC Championship Game, Johnson can’t sign or agree to sign with another team until after the Super Bowl.

🔗: CHGO BEARS COACHING TRACKER

So, if you’re hoping for a quick resolution to the search and you’re hoping it results in Johnson ending up with the Bears, you’re hoping for a quick exit for the Lions next weekend. In the meantime, keep tabs on other candidates with our coaching tracker, updated daily!

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— Patrick Norton

Sixteen candidates left.

Let’s do a little exercise: Without Vrabel, how many of the reported head coaching candidates can you name off the top of your head? I’ll try:

Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, Brian Flores, Thomas Brown, Marcus Freeman, Kliff Kingsbury, Pete Carroll, Anthony Weaver, Drew Petzing, Todd Monken, Joe Brady, Arthur Smith, Ron Rivera, David Shaw…

All right, that’s 14 names. I missed Mike McCarthy and Mike Kafka. I’ve spent hours updating our coaching search tracker and still couldn’t get everybody.

I think most of us agree that Johnson is the No. 1 priority at this point. However, the Bears have also completed interviews with Vrabel, Petzing, Weaver, Carroll, Kafka, Glenn, and Rivera.

When Bears general manager Ryan Poles said Chicago would “cast a wide net”, he wasn’t joking. But I think the worry from fans about the organization wasting time with too many candidates might be a bit misguided.

Johnson (Lions OC), Glenn (Lions DC), Flores (Vikings DC), Kingsbury (Commanders OC), Monken (Ravens OC), and Brady (Bills OC) are still busy coaching teams in the playoffs. With Detroit hosting Washington and Baltimore headed to Buffalo in the divisional round next weekend, at least two of those six candidates will make it to the conference championship weekend.

Instead, the worry should be about the NFL’s enforcement of Tom Brady’s contact with other teams as a broadcaster for FOX and as a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders participating in the team’s coaching search.

As a part-owner, Brady must adhere to the league’s anti-tampering policies, which include “strictly social communication with members of other clubs”. The seven-time Super Bowl champion is also not permitted to be in another team’s facility, attend another team’s practice, or attend in-person or virtual broadcast production meetings with coaches or players. Additionally, Brady cannot publicly criticize officials or other teams and must follow the league’s gambling policy.

Why does this matter? Brady will be in Detroit to call the Lions-Commanders matchup for FOX next Saturday. Brady’s Raiders also completed interviews with Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson last Friday. Thankfully, Brady doesn’t have a history of breaking rules…at least as a broadcaster.

The Bears–and other teams interested in either candidate–should be very interested in the league’s enforcement of the policies and restrictions against Brady.

🏈 Why Ben Johnson is a strong head coaching candidate for Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears

Keep David Carle’s name in mind

Why? The Bears aren’t the only team in Chicago needing a permanent head coach. Since firing Luke Richardson in December and handing the reins with an interim tag to Rockford IceHogs HC Anders Sorensen, the Blackhawks are just 6-11-0.

Firing Richardson just 26 games into his third season was supposed to send a message to a roster trapped in the bottom of the barrel of the league despite injecting a heavy veteran presence last offseason. Instead, Chicago remains dead last in the league 17 games later, accruing just 12 points under Sorensen.

General manager Kyle Davidson said Sorensen would remain in the interim role through the remainder of the year back in December, but the results haven’t been there to warrant removing the interim tag after the season, both in the win column and in the revitalization of the roster.

Where does that leave Chicago? On the hunt for the next head coach to bring the Blackhawks back to relevance with budding superstar Connor Bedard.

Enter David Carle, the 35-year-old head coach from the University of Denver who just led Team USA to back-to-back gold medals at the World Junior Championships. Since being named head coach at Denver in 2018, Carle has won two national championships in six seasons, including one last season.

Should Chicago make a run at Carle, who has received significant interest from around the NHL, it seems he’d have the support of Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar, who was a member of last year’s World Juniors gold medal team:

Speaking with NHL insider Frank Seravalli last week on Seravalli’s “Frankly Speaking” podcast, Carle said a move to the NHL “would need to be a life-changing opportunity”.

“It would also need to be a team with a vision that aligns with what I see as it relates to winning,” Carle continued. “I think the way coaches are recycled through the NHL–I personally don’t believe it’s the best way to have success.”

Carle later said: “Until those opportunities present themselves, there’s literally zero rush [to leave Denver].”

Since firing Joel Quenneville in 2018, Jeremy Colliton, Derek King, Luke Richardson, and now Anders Sorensen have spent time as head coach (or interim head coach) in Chicago. The revolving door hasn’t worked.

Despite being just 35 years old, Carle already has a track record of proven success, especially with developing young talent. Maybe he opts for stronger job security in the college game, but if Carle is looking for “a life-changing opportunity”, it makes too much sense for the Blackhawks to be the organization ready to provide it.

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