Matt Eberflus isn’t a good head coach. You know it. I know it. Hopefully Ryan Poles now knows it.
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus watches during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
AP
After all, the main reason the Bears are back here again is because they didn’t take last year’s warning signs seriously enough. The fan base should never be a step ahead of the organization, but it happens far too often with this team.
I wrote many times last year that the front office needed to be bold, thank Eberflus, and do everything to hire Jim Harbaugh.
I have nothing personal against Eberflus, I just understood this was a strong possibility this season. I want to win. Do the Bears?
The “fire everyone” Bears meme is popular on social media and the team hasn’t been averse to hiring and firing general managers and coaches, but they rarely find true solutions at the correct times.
I started covering the Bears in 1995 and soon Dave Wannstedt was losing his way. In 1997 the Bears dropped seven straight games on their way to a 4-12 season. Everyone knew Wannstedt needed to go, but instead the Bears brought him back for another 4-12 season in 1998.
Michael McCaskey then flubbed the hiring of Dave McGinnis and the Bears had to settle on their second choice of Dick Jauron. The Bears wasted a year and then botched the coaching hire.
It was so mishandled, Virginia McCaskey basically fired her son Michael and handed the reigns to Ted Phillips. It was only the beginning of wrong move after wrong move and why I continue to shout from the mountain tops that Bears dysfunction starts at the top.
Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus talks to quarterback Caleb Williams Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, during their game against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in Chicago.
It’s no coincidence that the Bears are 13-49 vs. the Packers since 1994, a trend that began under Wannstedt. Mike Ditka went 15-5 in 20 games vs. Green Bay and the Bears haven’t won that many in 30 years since.
Jerry Krause once coined the phrase “organizations win championships,” the same is true on the flip side. This once-proud organization has held itself back from winning since Ditka was fired.
Ironically, management at Halas Hall isn’t fond of ever welcoming back an alpha personality like Ditka. They’d rather lose with nice guys than win with those who make them a bit uncomfortable.
Back to our history lesson. After Jauron was fired, Jerry Angelo wanted to hire Nick Saban and Saban wanted the Bears job. Ted Phillips chose not to pay Saban and the Bears fell back on their second choice of Lovie Smith.
From there the Bears picked Marc Trestman over Bruce Arians, forced Ryan Pace to hire John Fox despite that not being his coaching choice, hired Matt Nagy, who fired himself as Bears playcaller multiple times, chose Matt Eberflus over Dan Quinn and kept Eberflus when they could’ve hired the ultimate program builder in Harbaugh.
Not only was keeping Eberflus one of the worst decisions in Bears history, it was compounded by the choice of making Shane Waldron his offensive coordinator.
Coaching decisions have cost the Bears the Colts, Commanders and Packers games and also have stunted Caleb Williams’ development.
Williams’ showed this Sunday that he’s still capable of overcoming being “Bears’d” and that he can truly be special. Poles finally got his guy at QB, but can he be trusted to fix the issues he created himself by doubling down on his Eberflus mistake? And that doesn’t take into account that Poles has failed to build an offensive line in three years.
I was hoping Kevin Warren would be able to bring more of a winning culture to the table when he was hired. But it was Warren who compared Eberflus to hall of famer Dick Vermeil a year ago. It sounded bad then and has aged even worse.
While the Bears wander the coaching desert, they are also the same organization who thought it would be a good idea to buy the Arlington Park property, knock down the racetrack, only to try to build downtown instead when nobody thinks it’s a good idea. Always a step behind common sense.
So as we start our mock coaching searches well before Thanksgiving instead of thinking about the playoffs, will the Bears truly get serious about hiring a coach? No cost should be too high, no personality should be too overbearing. You can continue to switch head coaches, but until the team understands what it truly takes to win, real change will never happen.
• Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the “Waddle & Silvy” show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.