Mere months removed from dodging questions about whether the Bears would fire him at the end of a season wrecked by scandal on his staff, epic collapses on the field and general frustration, coach Matt Eberflus has been put in charge of the greatest resource in recent franchise history: quarterback Caleb Williams, the much celebrated and long-awaited No. 1 draft pick.
That’s a wild swing in fortune, and it raises a valid concern about whether he knows what to do with everything he has been handed.
As the Bears continue checking boxes in their quest to contend for a championship — and they checked the biggest one by landing someone they expect to be a franchise quarterback — uncertainty lingers about Eberflus.
General manager Ryan Poles believes Eberflus is the right guy, but there’s nothing concrete about that confidence. There’s a lot more faith than proof at the moment.
Eberflus has been coaching for more than three decades, but that was exclusively on defense until the Bears hired him as their head coach in January 2022. He was asked about that on his first day at Halas Hall, knowing he would be held responsible for the offense, regardless of what his background was, and he said he was ‘‘excited about that.’’
Two seasons later, the Bears fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and traded quarterback Justin Fields. The Getsy hire, one of the biggest of Eberflus’ career, was rushed and ill-fated. And while Fields clearly has limitations, it’s indisputable that Eberflus’ staff failed to bring out the best in him.
Now Eberflus will get another shot at it — this time with a player considered to be the best prospect of the last three draft classes and with the future of the organization riding on his development.
‘‘It’s a group process,’’ Eberflus said at the end of the draft Saturday. ‘‘All of us together are going to do that at the same time.
‘‘Caleb is in a really good spot. He’s starting at a good spot, and he’s going to finish at a good spot. We’ve got to get him to the first game being the most prepared that he can be up to that point.’’
A few things there require elaboration.
The group will include Poles and new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron after Poles said going into the offseason that he would be more involved in the offensive-coordinator hiring than he was when the Bears chose Getsy. Collectively, they also installed Thomas Brown as the passing-game coordinator, which would help them maintain continuity if this all goes so well that Waldron becomes a hot head-coaching candidate, and onboarded an established quarterbacks coach in Kerry Joseph.
So that’s the ‘‘us’’ Eberflus mentioned.
He also pointed to Williams beginning his career in good position. That’s partly because of his talent and partly because Poles has stocked the offense with strong skill players. Few quarterbacks picked high in the draft are surrounded by this much firepower — receivers DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze, tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift — upon arrival.
‘‘It’s going to be tough to defend,’’ Eberflus said. ‘‘If you look at the receiving corps, they’re all different. The halfbacks are all different. The tight ends are different. That’s a credit to Ryan to be able to bring those guys together. . . . It’s going to be very difficult to defend.’’
The offense is almost too stacked to fail.
That’s probably the starting point on Poles’ evaluation of Eberflus this coming season. There’s consensus that the personnel department did its job; now it’s the coaching staff’s turn.
If the Bears — and specifically Williams and the offense — come up short this season, there’s little chance Poles will tolerate it. He undoubtedly believes he has put enough pieces in place for the offense to thrive. If it doesn’t, the investigation into why would start with Eberflus.
The Bears aren’t planning for failure, of course, but Poles might have foreseen it as a possibility when he made the gutsy call to retain Eberflus in January. Moving on from Fields in favor of Williams already was a strong probability at that point and, at a time when the organization is trying to do everything possible to facilitate his growth, a coaching change after one season wouldn’t be ideal.
The Bears know that firsthand after it happened with Mitch Trubisky and Fields. It’s an exasperating cycle. The upside this time would be that Poles has credibility to find an upgrade and that Williams is so gifted that any newcomer would be happy to have him.
But that’s several steps down a pretty pessimistic path, and nobody wants to think about that coming off a landmark draft. The Bears haven’t felt this good about where they’re headed since the buildup to their Super Bowl run. But those enormous expectations are exactly why Eberflus doesn’t have any margin for more mistakes.
