The Bears’ pattern of changing coaches so often hasn’t gotten them anywhere, and that has been one of the arguments in favor of keeping Matt Eberflus rather than firing him and rebooting again. If the Bears move on to a new head coach, he would be their fifth since they fired Lovie Smith at the end of the 2012 season.
But continuity simply for the sake of continuity is pointless. Does anyone think the Bears should’ve stuck with Marc Trestman, John Fox or Matt Nagy in the hope that keeping everything the same eventually would produce different results? Continuity is only valuable when a team is certain it has the right guy.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles and president Kevin Warren are weighing whether they have that in Eberflus. As of late Tuesday, the Bears had yet to schedule Eberflus’ end-of-season news conference, which would signal he is returning, or announce his dismissal.
When the Bears fired Nagy, Fox, Trestman and Smith, it was the morning after the final game. The delay in clarifying Eberflus’ status likely reflects lingering uncertainty after a season in which the Bears had playoff ambitions but fell short at 7-10.
The record itself isn’t the issue. The Bears went 3-14 in Eberflus’ first season, and stepping up to seven victories and scoring high in player development is progress. But the details and detours along the way make the decision more complicated.
‘‘We have done a lot of good things . . . yes, we have done well,’’ Eberflus told the Sun-Times last week. ‘‘We’re setting ourselves up for being on the rise and going into the future.’’
But he also acknowledged the negatives on his ledger.
The biggest are the departures of two assistant coaches for non-football reasons, monumental late-game collapses, an embarrassing start to the season in which the Bears looked unprepared and his struggles as the public voice of the franchise amid various controversies and mishaps.
Teams don’t usually see a coach forced out because of his conduct, but the Bears had it happen twice. The first was defensive coordinator Alan Williams, who had worked with Eberflus since 2018, resigning for personal reasons after the season opener. At midseason, the Bears fired running backs coach David Walker.
The team never specified what either coach did. But when Poles was asked about the two, he said, ‘‘If you don’t meet [our] expectations of . . . how you act, you don’t belong here.’’
Eberflus unequivocally took responsibility for Williams and Walker in the interview with the Sun-Times and conceded, ‘‘It doesn’t look great.’’ But he said the Bears ‘‘did our due diligence in terms of calling people and vetting the candidates. We’ve gotta . . . just do it better.’’
He lacked awareness when he initially addressed those situations publicly, refusing at first to answer whether Williams was on staff and praising the Bears’ ‘‘awesome’’ culture when they fired Walker. That didn’t go over well, and being able to convey clarity and control in those situations is essential to the job.
Eberflus slipped similarly when it came to receiver Chase Claypool’s ordeal and quarterback Justin Fields’ injury.
There are concerns when it comes to football, too.
Regarding the Bears’ stagnant offense, any complaints about coordinator Luke Getsy are attached to Eberflus. Getsy was his hire, and whether he was strategizing around Fields’ limitations or hindering Fields by not scheming to his strengths, it was problematic. And it was Eberflus’ responsibility to intervene.
The Bears were adrift in their season-opening loss to the Packers at home and were similarly overwhelmed two weeks later against the Chiefs. They followed with the worst collapse in franchise history while losing to the Broncos, then — after supposedly straightening themselves out — had another historic meltdown against the Lions.
That’s all on Eberflus.
Poles and Warren must assess whether those were hard lessons that will steer Eberflus to success or lapses that are liable to recur.
