The Bears interviewed the Super Bowl winning head coach on Thursday
The Chicago Bears have been working through their extensive list of head coaching candidates this week. Thus far, they have 16 names on the list, and a couple more names may be added before they are done.
Today, they completed their fourth interview with none other than Pete Carroll.
We have completed an interview with head coach candidate Pete Carroll. pic.twitter.com/n7G6txbX5y
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) January 9, 2025
Carroll is an interesting choice for the Bears given his age. Carroll will be 74 at the start of the 2025 football season. If the Bears eventually choose Carroll, it will certainly be questioned how much longer Carroll wants to do this. How long would he be willing to coach? Five years? Three years? Certainly, you couldn’t think Carroll would be coaching the team for the next ten years.
But age aside, there’s a lot to like about Carroll. He’s led teams that developed a young QB in Russell Wilson and brought Geno Smith back to life. He’s not an offensive-minded coach, but he also was an all-encompassing CEO coach who didn’t just coach the defense and let his offensive coordinator run the offense.
Carroll has won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and took them to another one. That certainly doesn’t hurt. But more importantly, Carroll is a culture builder. He knows how strong franchises should be run and he has the knowledge to bring to Halas Hall and improve their overall operation.
Carroll wouldn’t be my first choice because he isn’t a long-term answer, but if the Bears choose to go in this direction, there are several choices (on their list) that would be much, much worse than bringing Pete to Chicago.