Around the time last night’s college football national championship game ended, Vic Fangio became a free agent.
And that sets the stage for an interesting few days for the Bears defensive coordinator.
As noted by Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears exclusive window to talk to Fangio about coming back next year expired at midnight, and he can now explore options with other teams.
One of those is expected to be the Packers, though new Bears coach Matt Nagy would likely want to retain Fangio as well.
Fangio was one of six candidates to interview for the Bears head coaching job, and they may have included him on that list to butter him up to stay, since it was widely believed they wanted a young offensive mind to pair with quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
The Bears also told other head coaching candidates that they were interested in keeping the 59-year-old Fangio, who would provide some needed gravity for the 39-year-old Nagy.