Chicago Bears fans expected something when Matt Nagy was fired. The logical course of action was to hire an offensive-minded head coach. They had Justin Fields at quarterback, and he needed proper development. When George McCaskey hired GM Ryan Poles, those expectations were reinforced. Poles had spent most of his time with the Kansas City Chiefs working with Andy Reid. He understood the value of having an offensive specialist running the team. However, Poles hatched a surprise shortly after his arrival by tagging Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus as the next Bears head coach.
It wasn’t entirely out of left field, but it was still unexpected. Eberflus had tons of success with the Colts between 2018 and 2021. Everybody felt he was ready for the job. His qualifications weren’t the issue. There were merely concerns about whether he was ready for the challenge. Not only would he have to take over the development of Fields, but also endure a rebuilding of the roster. Plenty of the national media weren’t impressed.
As for Bears fans, they didn’t hate the choice. They didn’t love it either. Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic polled over 2,000 people with the question of how confident they are in Eberflus as the new coach. Their answers painted a clear picture.
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This can’t be called a big surprise.
Eberflus is tough to get a handle on. Nobody can dispute his success in Indianapolis. At the same time, he’s a defensive specialist who doesn’t come from what anybody would call a great coaching tree. Jason Garrett and Frank Reich are the only two NFL head coaches he worked under. Both of them being former quarterbacks might help him with Fields, but neither has a track record of championship success. Then again, Nagy came from the Reid tree. So that idea isn’t worth much.
For Bears fans, Matt Eberflus is in the “wait and see” category.
They seem to like his idea. There is a clear plan for how he wants to run this team. He wants speed, effort, and violence to be the identity on both sides of the ball. He already has that over Nagy, who never seemed to know what he wanted the Bears to be. Eberflus also has a plan for Fields. It involved installing a variation of the wide-zone offensive system that has created so much success around the NFL for quarterbacks. Maybe Luke Getsy is the right man for the job, maybe not. At least Eberflus knows what he wants.
The hard part will be execution and minimizing mistakes. Good head coaches stay on the right side of that line every year. Matt Eberflus knows this. It is right there in his H.I.T.S philosophy. Play smart and win the turnover ratio. The truth is the Bears won’t look like his team in 2022. He is in the process of weeding out the week this year. Once that is done, the actual team he has in mind will take form next season.
Fans will have to stay patient with him.
Eberflus inherited a mess. Such things take time to clean up. If he gets this team to overachieve somehow, that will be a sign the Bears may have gotten the hire right for once.
