Silvy: Now that Bears players have tanked Brown’s candidacy, here’s my choice to be coach

And just like that, the Bears coaching candidate list has been reduced by one.

Thomas Brown is out. It’s not his fault, it’s the players’. All we heard from them was how the atmosphere was different under Brown. He got their attention. He was more dynamic. He brought accountability back to the building.

And boom goes the dynamite.

You cannot be outscored 24-0 and outgained 319-4 in the opening half of football and be considered to lead this team going forward. This team needs a total overhaul and that probably means the general manager as well. Ryan Poles’ rebuild needs to be rebuilt, and he’s been stripped of a lot of his power by Kevin Warren.

Like Justin Fields last year, I don’t believe you can justify paying Poles with a contract extension nor can you afford not to pair the team president, GM and head coach all on the same time line.

I don’t blame the 49ers loss on Brown. He was put in an almost no-win task where a group of underachieving players were given too much leadership responsibility to begin with. This group needed to be led, not the other way around. Just weeks ago, Brown was the passing game coordinator who wasn’t even given a direct line of communication to Caleb Williams. Now he’s responsible for running the entire team.

Brown’s offense was just getting off the ground after three games. He had been an NFL playcaller for just eight games in his entire career. His sole focus needed to remain on that. But in typical Bears fashion, they cut off their nose to spite their face and here they are with the worst loss of the season. And that’s some achievement for a perennially dysfunctional Bears franchise.

So as we head into the final four games of the season, I hope Kevin Warren and George McCaskey are doing a deep dive on not only coaching and GM candidates but what truly has poisoned this franchise for decades. If McCaskey truly wants to win, he needs to put as much energy looking in the mirror as he did at scrubbing Hard Knocks from curse words. Because all of these losses make the fan base curse weekly and yearly.

On that note, here are my early power rankings for my favorite coaching candidates:

1. Mike Vrabel: A former head coach who demands respect and winner as a player and coach. Vrabel has three Super Bowl rings as a Patriots linebacker and a 54-45 record as coach with Ryan Tannehill as quarterback. He went to the playoffs in three straight years in Tennessee, something the Bears haven’t done since the 1980s. Vrabel ended Tom Brady’s run as Patriots quarterback with a playoff win in New England in 2019.

1A. Ben Johnson: Now the offensive coordinator with the Lions. Johnson has been the playcaller for the past three seasons and has finished top five in offense every year. He isn’t off the Shanahan/McVay tree and runs his own style offense so isn’t just a copycat coordinator. If you’re worried about another first-time head coach, most of the best coaches in the league are first-timers, including every coach in the NFC North. You just have to hire the right one.

3. Joe Brady: He rescued the Bills offense midseason last year after Josh Allen struggled with previous coordinator Ken Dorsey. Brady is 16-4 calling plays for Allen and has him as the front-runner for the MVP award with limited skill position players. Brady oversaw Joe Burrow’s Heisman Trophy season at LSU and has previous coaching experience with Sean Payton. Brady could still be a little raw at just 35 years old.

4. Brian Flores: I love his command of a room and is as good as it gets as a defensive playcaller. Flores was 24-25 as head coach of the Dolphins, which included going 19-14 in his final two seasons. Tua Tagovailoa blames Flores for breaking his confidence in his first two seasons with a demeaning coaching style. While Flores deserves a second chance, giving him that chance where developing a QB is the priority might not be the right time or place. Was a college teammate of Poles.

Do not consider:

Kliff Kingsbury: His connection to Caleb Williams and offense has some intrigued, but he has a losing head coaching record in college and the NFL. He would’ve been the correct hire as Bears' OC but don’t try to right that wrong by hiring him as top dog.

• Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the “Waddle & Silvy” show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.