After the Chicago Bears made a surprising hire at general manager they made a surprising hire at head coach. They tapped former Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus to replace Matt Nagy.
The Chicago Bears started the week with expectations to move quickly on their searches for a new general manager and head coach. Well, they certainly did just that. Early in the week, they hired Ryan Poles to replace Ryan Pace as general manager. His first order of business was to hire a head coach.
At the end of the week, Poles and the Bears found their head coach. They will hire former Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus to lead the team on the field.
Both searches ended up with surprise endings. Poles is just 36 years old so he doesn’t have a great deal of experience. He went with Eberflus, who also lacks some experience. While he’s been coaching in the NFL since 2009, he’s only been a coordinator for four seasons. Additionally, he hasn’t been a head coach at any level.
Eberflus coached in college for 17 years before coaching in the NFL. He held several positions from linebackers coach to defensive backs coach to defensive coordinator for Toledo (his alma mater) and Missouri. He then went to the Cleveland Browns as their linebackers coach. After two years, he went to the Dallas Cowboys as their linebackers coach for seven years.
In 2018, Eberflus went to Indianapolis. He did a great job there. His unit finished in the top ten in scoring defense in three of those four seasons. Additionally, his defenses finished with the second-most turnovers over that four-season period and the third-lowest average yards per carry.
How will Eberflus handle Fields?
It is exciting to see Eberflus strengthen the Chicago Bears’ defense. However, the concern is what he’ll do on offense. The Bears have Justin Fields, the franchise quarterback they spent decades trying to find. Fields needs to be developed properly. Under Nagy, he didn’t have a game plan that utilized his abilities.
Who Eberflus hires as his offensive coordinator will be critical for success.
While there are concerns with having a defensive-minded head coach when most teams are going with offensive-minded choices, this could be a good thing. As we saw with Nagy, offensive head coaches have their system and are too stubborn to adjust their system to their players. Eberflus would be more open to being flexible with the offense. He doesn’t have a system so he’ll do whatever it takes to put Fields in a position to succeed.
As soon as Poles became the general manager he conducted head coach interviews. The same day he was hired he interviewed Jim Caldwell. He also interviewed Dan Quinn. Earlier today, Quinn removed his name from consideration as he decided to stay with the Cowboys as their defensive coordinator. That might have made an impact on who Poles and the Bears hired.
McCaskey was hands-off
It appears that Chicago Bears Chairman of the Board George McCaskey was true to his word when he said the new general manager would be responsible for hiring the new head coach. When he hired Pace, he insisted on pairing him with veteran head coach John Fox.
The forced marriage resulted in three consecutive last-place finishes. McCaskey learned from that mistake and didn’t insist on anyone to pair with Poles. He could have gone with Caldwell, who has a breadth of experience. I’m sure McCaskey, as well as a big portion of the fanbase, are nervous with this new pair.
Now Poles and Eberflus have the job of filling out the roster. The Bears have over 30 players who hit the free agent market and a few others who qualify for buyouts. If the Bears do a good job of picking players, this could be a quick turnaround. Let’s hope that the Chicago Bears enter a new era of winning with Poles and Eberflus.
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