Is Kellen Moore the best option for the next Bears HC?

Barring an unforeseen turn of events, the Bears will likely be moving on from Matt Nagy.

Nagy has been on the hot seat since last season, and although he survived the 2021 offseason with his head coaching job in tact, a 4-7 record heading into December will presumably put the nail in the coffin.

The general consensus among Bears fans seems to be that firing Nagy is the right move for the organization, but as far as his replacement goes, fans seem to be pretty split in many different directions.

College coaches like Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State’s Ryan Day have been thrown out as dream options. Many of the NFL’s top coordinators have also been mentioned as candidates for possible promotions.

Excluding Harbaugh and Day — until any reputable reporters are able to indicate either of them would be interested in jumping to the pros — I ran a tournament over on my Twitter page and had a series of polls asking Bears fans which coach they would like in charge of the team next year.

It turns out, Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore came away as the winner of the tournament.

Moore, 33, has called plays for the Cowboys over each of the last three seasons. Under his watch, Dak Prescott came close to 5,000 yards in 2019 and led the NFL in passing yards prior to his season-ending injury in 2020. Dallas currently stands at 7-4 atop the NFC East, and their offense leads the league in total yards and is tied for second with 29.6 points per game.

Prior to becoming a coach, Moore was a quarterback in the league for 6 seasons as a backup for both the Cowboys and the Lions. He was a four-year collegiate starter at Boise State, going 50-3 in that span and being a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2010.

Quinten Krzysko did a fantastic write-up over at On Tap Sports Net about Moore’s profile as a head coaching candidate. I definitely recommend checking out the article in its entirety, but here’s a short quote from the piece:

Kellen Moore is one of the NFL’s popular young offensive minds that we see get head coaching opportunities every year. At [33] years of age, he is likely to be one of the youngest head coaching candidates ever. Josh McDaniels and Sean McVay were both (almost) 31 when hired as head coaches. There is a lot to like in Moore’s play-calling tendencies, as he has shown an ability to adapt to what he is seeing on the grass. His use of pre-snap motion is strong, as is his ability to keep a defense off balance.

Moore, similar to the likes of Brian Daboll, Byron Leftwich and Eric Bieniemy, has had the pleasure of working with a stacked offense in Dallas, and it can be tougher to indicate whether coaches like him are truly bright minds who are major parts of their team’s success, or if they are results of their surroundings.

That said, though, Moore brings a lot to the table, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him secure a head coaching job in the NFL this offseason.

To get a broader sense of what Bears fans want this year, I decided to attach the following poll to the bottom of the article. Whether you voted in my Twitter thread or not, feel free to make your opinions heard!