The Chicago Bears are having a pretty disappointing season once again. The Bears are entering the last week of the season with a 4-12 record after a 4-2 start to their season currently riding a dreadful 10 game losing streak. The Bears have already let go of former Head Coach Matt Eberflus after their loss on Thanksgiving to the Lions. The question now turns to current GM Ryan Poles as his seat is definitely piping hot and with Caleb Williams around entering his 2nd season there is no time to rebuild and should look to win now, and this might have to come at the expense of letting Ryan Poles go and moving to a new direction. There are 4 prime candidates that would be beneficial for the Bears to target and hopefully hire one of these candidates.
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Ray Agnew (Assistant General Manager, Lions) – Steve Bradshaw
Getting Ray Agnew, in addition to Ben Johnson, would be a dream offseason for the Bears. However, if they’re able to just land Agnew, that would be a great move as well. It makes a lot of sense to package the two together since both would be getting upgrades on their current job.
Agnew has done a great job with the Lions and stealing a member from your rivals is always sweet. Right now, this seems like the most obvious replacement, but based on the success we’ve seen from the Lions, it’s for a good reason.
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Ian Cunningham (Current Bears Assistant General Manager) – Nik Shallon
Ian Cunningham would have an advantage if the Bears wish to do an interview with him as he has already been in the organization for multiple years now under the wing of current general manager Ryan Poles. Cunningham, only 39 has already had other General Manager interviews in past years including last offseason with the Chargers and Cardinals. Cunningham is one of the best scouts out there and he knows how to handle tense situations under pressure. This would be a smooth transition if it were to happen as Cunningham would already have a good feel of the current Bears roster and player morale would hardly change at all if this move was made.
Cunningham also has a winning pedigree dating back to his Eagles days as a scout when the Eagles won the Super Bowl back in the 2017 season.
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Terrance Gray (Director of Player Personnel, Bills) – Steve Bradshaw
Terrance Gray may not be as popular of a pick, but he’s one of the more underrated candidates. Gray has experience as a scout and is currently working as the director of player personnel for the Bills. Hiring from great organizations is always a good idea as you get some of that winning culture.
When looking for a winning culture, it’s hard to get much better than the Bills. Much like Agnew, Gray has experience working for a winning organization, which would be highly beneficial for the Bears.
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Mike Borgonzi (Assistant General Manager, Chiefs) – Nik Shallon
Mike Borgonzi is one of the more popular general manager candidates in the league today and for good reason. Mike has seen it all during the Chiefs dynasty run as current Chiefs general manager Brett Veach right hand man seeing 8 straight division championships and 3 Super Bowl victories. Helped draft one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Patrick Mahomes. The winning pedigree is there for the Bears it will come down to if the Bears are interested and if they are then it will come down to if Borgonzi will accept a interview with the bears as he has declined interviews to stay with the Chiefs and help lead them to get more championships and who would blame him in the position that he is in.
Borgonzi has been with the Chiefs organization for 16 years now so it would take a lot for him to move on from the Chiefs but with Caleb Williams in play and the Bears desire to win it could be a valid enough reason to switch.
The next few weeks will certainly be interesting to see what unfolds in Chicago and the job status for Ryan Poles.
