It doesn’t take a thermometer to find the hottest seat at Halas Hall.
General manager Ryan Poles? The Panthers lost again Sunday, cementing the 2024 first-round pick they traded to the Bears in March as No. 1 overall. That gives Poles one of the great trade hauls in recent NFL history: the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 for the top pick in 2024, star receiver DJ Moore, rookie right tackle Darnell Wright, rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson — the NFC Defensive Player of the Week — and a 2025 second-rounder. Poles also acquired defensive end Montez Sweat, who made his first Pro Bowl on Wednesday, from the Commanders in October.
Coach Matt Eberflus? His defense has allowed the lowest passer rating and the second-fewest points since Week 7. He has won five times in his last seven games after winning five times in his first 26.
Quarterback Justin Fields? He’s coming off the best start of his career against the Falcons. More important is what the Bears would gain by bringing him back next season — a haul of draft picks and players in a trade for that No. 1 pick.
That leaves offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, the engineer of an offense that ranks 27th this season in passing yards and 25th in both passer rating and yards per pass. In his two years with the team — the first was a total Bears rebuild — Getsy’s offense ranks last in both passing yards and completions.
The Bears lead the NFL in rushing yards the last two years, but their passing numbers should give Getsy’s higher-ups pause. If the Bears decide to use their No. 1 pick to draft USC quarterback Caleb Williams, can they be comfortable with Getsy being the one to mold him? If they bring Fields back, why would a continued pairing with Getsy be any more fruitful than it has been? And why did it take until the second-to-last week of their second season together for Fields to have the complete game (268 yards passing and 45 on the ground in a 37-17 win over the Falcons) that Bears fans have craved for years?
Would the Bears really just run it back?
Getsy avoided big-picture questions Thursday, saying he was more focused on facing the Packers, for whom he worked in 2014-17 and 2019-21 — the second stint as Aaron Rodgers’ quarterbacks coach. Instead, he said Fields’ mentality “inspires me daily.”
He added that he and Fields “have a great relationship” and “work really well together.” But even that comes with a complication. In Week 3, Fields pointed to his coaches when trying to explain why he was, in his own words, playing “robotic.” He blamed the media later that day and, the following day, made it a point to hug Getsy in front of cameras at practice.
Working well together isn’t an argu-ment to stay together. Neither are Getsy’s well-publicized struggles on short-yardage downs that contributed to fall-from-ahead losses to the Broncos, Lions and Browns this season. Win two of those games, and the Bears are 9-7 and likely in the postseason. Instead, they’re trying to play spoiler in their rivalry game.
When Eberflus hired Getsy two years ago, it was because Getsy came from the offensive system Eberflus found the most difficult to defend against. Coaching Rodgers helped make Getsy a hot-shot assistant at the time; he had interviewed for the Broncos’ head-coaching job before he’d ever called an NFL play. But after two years in Chicago, he and the Bears’ passing attack remain stuck in the muck. In a poll taken by the NFL Players Association, he wasn’t listed among the top five offensive coordinators.
Getsy said Thursday that Fields’ future is “super-bright.”
We’ll find out next week, one way or the other, if Getsy is a part of it.
