Report: Bears are ‘very smitten’ with Brian Flores

The Chicago Bears are in the middle of their search for their next head coach, where there have been a bevy of intriguing candidates they’ve interviewed or will interview in the coming days.

One of those includes former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who was a shocking fire last week.

Flores is expected to be in high demand, as he’s already garnered interviews with the Bears, New York Giants and Houston Texans. ESPN’s Dan Graziano indicated Flores is among the early favorites for Chicago’s head coach vacancy, and that seems to be the consensus at this point.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson, the Bears are “very, very smitten” with Flores. But there are two keys when it comes to Flores and the control he ultimately wants within the organization.

“For Chicago to reel him in,” Robinson said, “they have to talk to Flores and go, ‘Okay, the general manager hire is going to be someone you’re comfortable with and you want to be connected with. And it’s also going to be someone who’s comfortable letting you take the lead in the organization, i.e. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch.’

“Very similar set-up where it’s going to be a very coach-driven organization first with a GM being, not on the second tier, but just holding back a little bit behind the head coach.”

@CharlesRobinson was on the @HolleyandSmith podcast and said the Chicago Bears are “very smitten” with Brian Flores. Check it out and sub to their channel! pic.twitter.com/9oAQUsowYe

— illwill (Light Skin but I'm still a Dark….) (@79illwill) January 18, 2022

The other part of this equation, which likely true for any candidate interviewing for the job, is the belief in quarterback Justin Fields.

“From what I understand, wherever Brian Flores goes, he wants to have an upper-echelon, upper-echelon quarterback,” Robinson said. “Not a top-15 quarterback, not a top-10 quarterback. But someone who could potentially factor in the top five or six moving forward.”

But the thing is, Flores isn’t going to find a current top-5 quarterback in any of the available head coaching vacancies. That’s a big reason why those coaches are still employed.

When you look at the available coaching vacancies, the Raiders have the current best quarterback in Derek Carr. But Fields would certainly factor into being one of the top quarterback options for those teams looking for a head coach.

So if Flores were to take the Bears job, it’s going to be his job to get the right coaches in place to help develop Fields into that top quarterback he’s seeking.

Here’s a look at the complete list of head coach and GM candidates the Bears have requested to interview: