The Bears lost to the Packers twice this season and they are interested in talking to one of the guys responsible for running the offense in Green Bay about their head coaching job.
David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune reports that the Bears asked permission to interview Packers offensive coordinator Tom Clements, which is a formality since teams are required to allow their coordinators to interview for head coaching jobs. Clements, who won a national title as Notre Dame’s quarterback in 1973 and the CFL MVP in 1987, is in his first year as the team’s coordinator, moving up from quarterbacks coach after Joe Philbin became the head coach in Miami last offseason.
Given the clear message sent by General Manager Phil Emery on Tuesday that offensive failures were the reason why Lovie Smith is no longer the Bears coach, it’s not surprising that they have been linked with several offensive minds in their coaching search thus far. Clements, Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and Buccaneers offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan are all on their list of candidates.
Haugh points out that this isn’t the first time the Bears have tried to hire Clements. The Packers didn’t let them talk to him about their offensive coordinator position in 2010 -- teams can block position coaches from interviewing for coordinator jobs -- which led to the Bears hiring Mike Martz. They replaced Martz with Mike Tice for this season and none of it worked out well for the Bears offense, which is why they are back trying to talk to Clements right now.