Everybody seems to think a change at head coach is coming for the Chicago Bears. Matt Eberflus is 6-22 through 28 games, the worst winning percentage in franchise history. He’s had two brutal 4th quarter collapses in barely over a month. His defense still isn’t good, and the team has developed a reputation for ugly mistakes in key situations. Couple this with the fact Kevin Warren runs the show and had no say in his hiring; it’s hard not to believe Eberflus is gone after the season ends. From there, the discussion becomes about replacements. No name has more buzz around it than Jim Harbaugh.
Everybody knows the situation by now. The former Bears quarterback has had a stellar coaching career with successful stops at Stanford, San Francisco, and now Michigan. Rumors persist that he wants to return to the NFL, and Chicago is a “dream job.” Warren’s presence makes that more likely than ever since the two are well-acquainted from when the latter was Big Ten commissioner. If the Bears president is looking for a winner with plenty of experience, there is nobody better.
One problem does exist. No, it’s not money or even Harbaugh’s notorious personality. It is the likelihood that he would demand significant power over the roster.
Jim Harbaugh won’t want to repeat what happened in San Francisco.
The biggest issue that arose during his time there was a clear power struggle between him and then-GM Trent Baalke. Harbaugh felt his opinions regarding personnel decisions weren’t being heard, which led to lots of tension. Baalke and team owner Jed York didn’t like when the coach voiced his opinion about the issue. As the relationship grew icy, the decision was made in 2014 that Harbaugh would be fired. What followed was a smear campaign in the media, doing everything possible to shift the blame for team struggles on the head coach.
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There is no way Jim Harbaugh will want to enter that kind of situation again, where he’s left at the mercy of a GM he doesn’t know or trust. That means he will insist on some level of final say over the roster. It is unlikely Ryan Poles would accept such an arrangement. That means Warren would either have to fire him to meet Harbaugh’s demands or find a coach elsewhere. Either that or hire a GM that Harbaugh knows and would trust with personnel decisions.
Such an arrangement would be unique in Bears history. They’ve only given a head coach final say over the roster once in the Super Bowl era. That was Dave Wannstedt, and he held that power for only one season. It would be a massive shift in philosophy for this organization.
