Arkush: Is now the time for Bears to be hiring/firing executives?

For those of you wondering whether Ryan Pace and/or Matt Nagy should be retained, in weighing pros and cons, the only pro is being able to find someone better.

There are multiple cons, and the biggest is there is nothing normal about the times in which the Bears would have to conduct their search.

It's been different and difficult for general managers and coaches to do their jobs due to all the intrusions of the pandemic, and some would say how unfair and potentially unwise it could be to judge key people under these circumstances.

Let's say the Bears decide to make changes. How does the process play out?

Will the Bears be able to conduct in-person interviews? Will the top candidates be willing to travel and/or pick up their families and move? Do you want someone new in a scouting process that will be the most difficult in decades?

To get some answers expertise was sought.

Around Chicago, Ernie Accorsi is best known as the guy who helped the Bears hire Pace. Across the NFL he is renown for his work as general manager of the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants, hiring Bill Belichick for his first head coaching job, hiring Tom Coughlin in New York, and building the core of Coughlin's two Super Bowl teams.

I asked Accorsi how difficult it would be to hire a GM or coach if he couldn't meet with them in person.

"As far as the GM and coach search, it's not ideal," Accorsi said. "I would be uncomfortable with it, but I think people have become so accustomed to Zoom stuff, conducting business, doing all the stuff that they need to - coaches are coaching their teams virtually - I think they'll be OK."

OK, so it's not ideal, but it can be done.

What about hiring new top football people to oversee your draft and free agency?

"That's a bigger factor," he said. "They're going to have to scout by tape, they haven't been able to do it in person I assume. They haven't been able to go to the games, and I never wanted to draft a guy high I didn't see in person, but they're going to have to."

I asked Accorsi if face-to-face interviews would be more important with draft prospects than potential coaches and GMs?

"Yeah, the interviews themselves are going to be tough," he said. "Say you're talking to assistant coaches or (those who) have been a head coach, they're going to be accustomed to having done a lot of work on Zoom. The kids may have done it with their friends and all but not ... when you're going to get drafted.

"It's going to be hard."

At the moment the Bears' 2020 draft is looking pretty strong. So are they better off with Pace and his staff, who've been working on the next one since the last draft ended, or someone new starting from scratch, severely restricted by the pandemic in how he can do the job?

"There are going to be a lot of challenges for that, no question," Accorsi said. "You can evaluate players off game tape and interviews on Zoom or whatever, but it's going to be a challenge and not business as usual, that's for sure.

"I remember when George (Young) got the general manager job - I was already here (with the Giants) - he couldn't even hire a personnel director and he had to run that (first) draft himself. He had been the pro personnel director in Miami, so he hadn't been scouting.

"When you go in there you're not going to be able to bring any people with you or hire scouts until after the draft."

Knowing how unusual everything about the world is now, are the Bears really ready for this?

Then there is another tidbit Accorsi shared from his days hiring his own personnel directors and head coaches.

"I always kept alive a 10-man list of coaches, general managers and personnel directors (candidates), and asked myself a million times if things are going bad who's going to be at the top of your list," he said.

Does Bears Chairman George McCaskey or anyone who might assist him have such a starting point?

• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush