Kyle Shanahan To The Bears? Insider Hints At Possibility

The Chicago Bears have the worst reputation when it comes to identifying quality head coaches. That has never been clearer than during the past decade. Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, and now Matt Eberflus have encompassed their existence since 2013. Multiple GMs and team presidents have tried to help George McCaskey fix the problem without any success. Now Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles will give it a shot. Both know their jobs may hinge on this decision. Could that mean they decided to go after the biggest name possible? Enter Kyle Shanahan.

It sounds crazy to think the San Francisco 49ers head coach is in any danger. He just went to the Super Bowl last season, coming an overtime away from winning it. However, a bitter loss combined with his team’s plummet to a 5-7 record this season have left some wondering if he’s run his course with that organization. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk thinks the possibility is there that a strong enough push from another team could convince the 49ers to trade for the head coach. He explained on 670 The Score.

Kyle Shanahan is as proven as they come.

Since taking over the 49ers in 2017, he has had four winning seasons and two Super Bowl appearances. He managed this with two different quarterbacks (Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy). Each of those four playoff runs resulted in at least a conference championship game appearance. There is no denying Shanahan is a successful head coach. So why would San Francisco part ways? Well, sometimes things run their course. As Florio pointed out, that same franchise and owner almost traded Jim Harbaugh in 2014, right after he’d just gone to his third consecutive NFC championship.

So don’t think for a second that organization wouldn’t consider the idea.

Kyle Shanahan has ties to Illinois. His father, Mike Shanahan, was born in Franklin Park and played and coached at Eastern Illinois. The family has roots in the region. If the head coach is open to a change of scenery, the Bears make plenty of sense. They have a young team with lots of talent on both sides of the ball. Most importantly, they have a quarterback who eclipses any Shanahan has worked with since his brief stint with Matt Ryan in 2015 and 2016. Chicago has plenty of draft capital to make such a deal work. It comes down to if the 49ers and Shanahan himself are open to the idea.