After a 5-12, last-place season that included 10 consecutive losses and the in-season firings of coach Matt Eberflus
and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron
, the Chicago Bears are now embarking on a search to hire the franchise’s next head coach.
General manager Ryan Poles said the search committee
he is leading will cast a wide net, speaking with coaches from many backgrounds. Candidates will interview with a six-person panel, including Chairman George McCaskey, President Kevin Warren, Poles, director of football administration Matt Feinstein, senior director of player personnel Jeff King and chief HR officer Liz Geist.
“We’re turning every stone to make sure we’re doing this the right way,” Poles said. “We’re going to move with urgency, but we’re not going to rush the process. Again, because we want it to be a sound process.”
The Tribune is tracking the latest developments with news, notes and nuggets from the search.
Titans coach Mike Vrabel watches from the sidelines during the first quarter of a wild-card game at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 4, 2020, in Foxborough, Mass. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS)
What it means: Vrabel, who went 54-45 over six seasons with the Titans, is one of the hottest names in this hiring cycle. A consultant for the Cleveland Browns this season, Vrabel already interviewed with the New York Jets and reportedly has the New England Patriots on his schedule for Thursday. Vrabel played eight of his 14 NFL seasons with the Patriots and is considered a front-runner there.
The former linebacker is a defensive-minded head coach, so the Bears undoubtedly asked him to present a plan for quarterback Caleb Williams, including a list of potential coordinators and coaches who would accompany him to Chicago. Bears players who played under Vrabel in Tennessee said he is a no-nonsense, detailed coach who would set a standard from the beginning.
Our new sanctions regime targets those profiting from irregular migration and organised immigration crime. We must be focused and smart
In January 1946, the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, stared into the geopolitical fog. The second world war had only just ended. The cold war, which would last more than four decades, was only just beginning. It was hard to see six months, let alone six years ahead.
But Bevin did not sit waiting for the fog to clear. He was a minister of action, who saw that what matters is not just what Britain says, but what it does. What matters is not just what Britain wants, but what it builds. What matters is having a strategy. This is why Clement Attlee’s 1945 general election manifesto was called Let Us Face the Future
.
Senate Republicans are ready to begin delivering on President-elect Donald Trump’s historic mandate, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Wednesday in outlining the Senate’s path ahead.
PARIS — Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is advising the world “not to waste a lot of time” on what President-elect Donald Trump has been saying about Greenland.
Trump made clear again this week that he’d like the semiautonomous territory of Denmark to come under U.S. control and said he would not rule out the use of military force to make that happen.
“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” Trump said.
But Blinken said Wednesday that the incoming president’s ambitions are unlikely to amount to anything more than talk.
“The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one,” the senior U.S. diplomat said during a stop in Paris for meetings.
“Maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen. So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it,” he said.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, also played down any possibility of U.S. forces being deployed against Denmark, a U.S. ally in the NATO military alliance.
But Barrot warned nevertheless that Europe must brace for turbulence ahead – as other powers throw their weight around.
“Do we think the United States will invade Greenland? The answer is, ‘No,’” the French minister said. “But do we think that we’re entering into a period that sees the return of the law of the strongest, the answer is, ‘Yes.’”
Europe must become stronger militarily and more economically and commercially competitive in response, Barrot said.
“We have to go a lot further to affirm who we are, what we want,” he said.
The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has said she does not believe the United States will use military or economic power to secure control over Greenland and has appealed for U.S. behavior “that is respectful of the Greenlandic people.”
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country no matter how powerful, in a reaction to Trump’s remarks that did not mention the president-elect by name. “Borders must not be moved by force,” Scholz said.
