The Chicago Bears are going to be in the market for a new head coach starting on Monday when they inevitably give Matt Nagy his walking papers. One of the biggest names on the coaching market for years now has been University of Michigan's head coach Jim Harbaugh. As a former NFL quarterback for the then-San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and Chicago Bears and as a coach for the San Francisco 49ers, Harbaugh is deeply rooted in the NFL.
His brother, John, is even a coach in the league. They were the first brothers to ever become NFL head coaches and they also became the first brothers to coach against each other in 2011. They then had the ultimate family moment when they coached against each other in Super Bowl XLVII, where John's Ravens beat Jim's 49ers 34-31. Safe to say Harbaugh has a lot pulling him back to the NFL, but which team would be the best for him? The Las Vegas Raiders make a lot of sense because of his ties to the teams' ownership…but in the end, we were able to find three good reasons why Harbaugh should turn down the overtures by his friend, Raiders owner Mark Davis, and return to the windy city.
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Three reasons why the Bears need to hire Jim Harbaugh
3. He brings instant credibility to the job
Harbaugh has turned around every team and/or program that he has been a part of dating back to 2004. He started out by turning the University of San Diego Toreros from a team that had never won a conference title into back-to-back Pioneer League championships in 2005 and 2006. That job led him to the University of Stanford where he took them from 3-9 in 2006 to their first bowl win since 1996 and the first BCS bowl victory in Stanford history.
He then parlayed that gig into an opportunity to coach the San Francisco 49ers who had not had a winning season or playoff appearance since 2002. From 2011-2014, he turned them into a team that eventually made a Super Bowl. Then, finally, in his most recent stop, he took the Michigan Wolverines football program from 5-7 in 2014 to 11-1 in 2021, including Michigan's first-ever Big-Ten title game win and first-ever College Football Playoff berth.
2. He has had success with a similar quarterback
Most people will remember that Colin Kaepernick was the quarterback for Harbaugh's 49ers when they made their Super Bowl run. The Bears have a similar quarterback in Justin Fields in the sense that both can make plays with their legs, both benefit from a strong run game and both have rocket arms.
Also, Harbaugh has consistently shown that he will be able to adjust his offense to his quarterback's strengths. Whether it was Josh Johnson at the University of San Diego, Andrew Luck at Stanford, Kaepernick in San Francisco, or Cade McNamara at Michigan, Harbaugh has played to his QB's strengths and that is exactly what the Bears need for Fields. Since Justin played at Ohio State for two years, Harbaugh was able to get an up-close and personal look at him and if Harbaugh does indeed take this job, the talented signal-caller from his arch-nemesis will be the main reason.
1. He's the best option out there
With Matt Nagy having no previous coaching experience prior to the Bears, we can probably rule out coordinators and assistants around the NFL because Chicago cannot go down that path twice in a row. That takes Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich out of the equation as well as Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy, Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
That leaves just NFL retreads Jim Caldwell and Doug Pederson to battle it out with Harbaugh. While Pederson and Caldwell have both made Super Bowls–Pederson even won his–neither coach brings the same type of meaningful change that is necessary for Chicago to become a playoff team. It is “Harbaugh or bust” for the Bears, and their fans are surely hoping it's the former.
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