Two weeks ago, Devin McCourty and I did a PFT Live draft of the best candidates to coach the Bears. In the midst of doing (limited) prep, it occurred to me to suggest that the Bears target a coach currently serving as the head coach of another team.
And it went from there.
I mentioned both 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Ravens coach John Harbaugh. That same day, I spouted off my “trade for a coach” idea on The Score in Chicago, and on Rich Eisen’s show. I wrote something about it. It came up again the next day on The Score.
It was sort of like the instructions on fireworks: Light fuse and run.
After the burning of the wick hit the explosive, 49ers G.M. John Lynch called the idea of Shanahan being traded to the Bears “rather comical.” (It’s not, as we noted, Lynch’s call.) After the 49ers thumped said Bears nine days ago, Shanahan reaffirmed his commitment to his current employer.
It all died down after that. Until the Bears were on Monday Night Football and the fourth quarter required a little garbage-time fill from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
The topic of the looming coach search came up. And Troy went there.
“In my opinion, I hate to say this because at the end of the day you want a head coach, but I think it’s gotta be an offensive guy that’s going to be able to develop Caleb Williams,” Aikman said. “And those guys are hard to find. And you’re betting on someone, you’re not certain whether or not they can be a head coach.
“There has been discussion about, ‘Do you give up some picks and see if you can maybe make a deal for a guy like Kyle Shanahan?’ I would be all in on that. Because he would develop a quarterback, and he’s a hell of a head coach. But can you pull that off? That’s a better question. And who might you hire that has no head-coaching experience as an offensive guy? You never know the answer to that, as to how good they’re gonna be.”
It’s one thing for a moron like me to say it. It’s another thing for a three-time Super Bowl winning Hall of Fame quarterback who has been a No. 1 analyst for over two decades to say it.
The broader point, when it all came up two weeks ago, was that teams shouldn’t limit themselves to unproven coordinators, fired former NFL head coaches, and college coaches. Why not call other NFL teams to see if maybe, just maybe, a deal can be made?
I specified Shanahan because: (1) the 49ers nearly traded Jim Harbaugh to the Browns in 2014, after he took them to a Super Bowl and two other conference championships in three seasons; and (2) it just feels like the 49ers and Shanahan could mutually benefit from a fresh start after six seasons of failed efforts to sixth Super Bowl title.
Maybe 49ers owner Jed York would laugh at Bears chairman George McCaskey and hang up the phone. Either way, the call is free.
More importantly, the idea has now gone mainstream, thanks to Monday Night Football.
