Four weeks after a spitballed idea about how the Bears should try to fill their coaching vacancy morphed into a widespread thought that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan could be traded to Chicago, team owner Jed York has chimed in regarding both Shanahan and G.M. john Lynch.
“They’re not going anywhere,” York said before Monday night’s game, via Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard.
It all started when someone (me) suggested that the Bears should break from the typical categories of coaching candidates (coordinators, fired former NFL head coaches, and college coaches) to call teams that might be thinking about making a change, and then if there’s an opening attempting to make a deal. I mentioned Shanahan, Ravens coach John Harbaugh, and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel.
In the aftermath, Shanahan became the focal point. Two weeks ago, Troy Aikman endorsed that approach during the Bears-Vikings Monday night game.
The point stands. The Bears should make the calls. Hell, they should still call York. If he’s intrigued by what he could get from the Bears or someone else, who knows what might happen?
Shanahan was mentioned in part because it feels like both sides might benefit from a fresh start, and because the 49ers nearly traded Jim Harbaugh to the Browns in 2014, after three straight seasons of NFC Championship appearances, with a Super Bowl berth in the second.
The calls are free. And proven coaches are worth the draft-pick compensation.
As Aikman explained it, promoting a successful coordinator involves a roll of the dice that he’ll thrive at the next level. A coordinator who has already shown he can coach an NFL team has real value.
Besides, haven’t we learned to not take such broad proclamations at face value? From multiple teams having “no intention” to trade a player who was then traded to a man who once said “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach” who then became the Alabama coach, certain situations require certain things to be said. In no uncertain terms.
Even if the truth entails far less certainty.
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