The Chicago Bears are staying the course. The identical, mind-numbing, disastrous course.
Head coach Matt Eberflus is staying in his function in 2024, with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy being sacrificed on the altar of his mediocrity. To be truthful, Getsy was horrible as effectively — however the resolution to retain Eberflus on the most pivotal time within the Bears’ fashionable historical past is the form of resolution that would hang-out the choice for the following decade.
With the No. 1 choose in hand, a long-term resolution needing to be made on Justin Fields, and the course of the franchise in flux, it ought to have been the proper time to rent a brand new teaching employees to make these selections as a unit. As a substitute common supervisor Ryan Poles seems afraid of admitting that hiring Eberflus was a mistake, and is prepared to danger the way forward for the group to satiate his personal emotions of inadequacy.
Now Chicago will sit at a dimly-lit sales space in a tragic diner and quietly munch on their shit sandwich, quite than attempt to do one thing to get higher.
Below Eberflus the staff has limped to a 10-24 file with the identical points rearing their head in every of their two seasons: A woeful offense led by Luke Getsy — which did not leverage Justin Fields’ potential, paired with an inconsistent protection that confirmed fleeting flashes of brilliance, couched in mediocrity.
Eberflus has been on the middle of all of it. Now he’s supposed to search out an thrilling, dynamic offensive coordinator who can both revitalize Fields, or set up a rookie QB, whereas being a lame duck coach. That is an unattainable activity, and it’s repeating the identical errors once more.
This can be a persevering with difficulty with the Bears: Now we have no actual concept of how good anybody could possibly be on this staff, as a result of these in management positions preserve hamstringing them. Fields is now set to be compelled to study his third offense since coming into the NFL, successfully an unattainable activity, and this can trickle all the way down to the remainder of the talent positions. Anybody prepared to take the Bears’ offensive coordinator job might want to have a perception that they’re not throwing their profession away, which is a dicey proposition when the top coach is as poor as Eberflus is.
Now there are two paths ahead, they usually each completely suck.
- Justin Fields stays the beginning quarterback. The Bears use the draft to construct round him with weapons. The staff might want to determine whether or not to select up his choice, which must be carried out within the first yr of him studying a brand new system. If it falls aside then the Bears have squandered their No. 1 choose, they don’t have a quarterback of the longer term, they usually’ll should preserve ready to search out their man. Fields would even be working below his third offensive coordinator in 4 years with Chicago.
- The Bears draft a brand new quarterback. Whether or not it’s Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, now the Bears are throwing a rookie to a lame duck coach, with a brand new offensive coordinator. They might want to study a brand new offense, as Justin Fields did when Matt Nagy was head coach — solely to seemingly see Eberflus fired in 2025 (as a result of he’s terrible), and now the rookie’s growth is hampered by needing to study a brand new offense is yr two.
To make issues worse, we’re not coming into a draft the place there’s a transparent minimize No. 1 at quarterback. Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are extraordinarily completely different gamers, who require very completely different teaching philosophies round them. Williams excels out of construction, improvising performs on the fly, and taking part in with a really aggressive edge the place he’s persistently making an attempt to make massive performs downfield.
In the meantime, Drake Maye is way more a typical pocket passer. He likes to grip it and rip it, working finest with a transparent construction round him and clearly defines targets.
Should you’re to increase this to the present NFL it’s about whether or not you could have a plus-level Kyler Murray (Williams), or a minus-level Justin Herbert (Maye) — and people are actually completely different gamers to construct an offense round. It’s a call that needs to be made with a brand new head coach, with a cohesive imaginative and prescient, with an offensive coordinator they’ll depend on to make that call.
As a substitute, the selection might be made by Poles, for his lame duck coach, and lame duck offensive coordinator.
All indicators level to Fields remaining at quarterback. This all reeks of staying pat. There’s no quantity of assist that may save this staff. Certain, they might commerce again and get some draft property whereas choosing somebody like Marvin Harrison Jr. They may bolster their offensive line as effectively. None of that modifications that the man in cost is a nasty head coach, with poor resolution making, and no quantity of draft picks will change that.
The Bears determined that ketchup was spicy. Now they’ll accept mediocrity.