Ian Rapoport dropped a bombshell on Saturday. The insider made it relatively clear that barring a complete breakdown over the final two weeks of the season; Matt Eberflus is expected to return as head coach of the Chicago Bears for a third season. This isn’t a huge surprise. The team has played much better over the second half of the season. After starting 0-4 in September, they’ve gone 6-5 since and should probably be 8-3 if not for a pair of rough 4th quarter collapses against Detroit and Cleveland. The defense has ascended to become one of the league’s best. It hasn’t been perfect, but the progress is hard to deny. The interesting part is what role team president Kevin Warren plays in this.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network added some notable details on that subject.
“The Bears have a new team president, Kevin Warren, who is a big-picture thinker and always talks about taking a methodical, organized and deliberate approach to all decisions. (Informatively, Warren was a young executive with a Rams team that went 5-11 and 4-12 in Dick Vermeil’s first two seasons, then won the Super Bowl in Year 3.) He’ll have a strong voice in whatever decisions are made and take a wholistic view of things once the season ends.”
Everybody thought Vermeil was washed up and out of his element in St. Louis those first two years. However, he’d taken over an awful team that desperately needed an overhaul. It took time for him to retool the roster and instill the necessary systems to get things off the ground. Then, in his third season, things came together. He found a new offensive coordinator in Mike Martz, traded for running back Marshall Faulk, and drafted wide receiver Tory Holt. The Rams exploded to 13-3 that year and won the Super Bowl. Patience had paid off.
Kevin Warren understands the value of stability.
While Eberflus hasn’t won as many games as Bears fans had hoped, it’s apparent the players involved understand and respect what he’s trying to build. They’ve bought into his philosophies, and it is starting to yield results. Warren is smart enough to understand that shifting to a new coach does not guarantee anything. If he gets the sense Eberflus has things pointed in the right direction, the wise decision is to let it play out. He also understands that the critical factor that got Vermeil over the hump in St. Louis was finding a quarterback. The Rams stumbled onto Kurt Warner a year prior. Fate elevated him to the starting job in 1999. The rest is history.
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Questions linger on whether Justin Fields is the guy Chicago needs to reach the next level. If a change at QB and offensive coordinator is what finally got Vermeil over the hump, perhaps the same will be true for Eberflus. Kevin Warren understands the value of the quarterback position as well as anybody. He was also in Minnesota for the acquisitions of Brett Favre and Kirk Cousins. Both helped turn the Vikings into contenders. Chicago holds the #1 pick in the upcoming draft. The time might be right to find a quarterback Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles believe can get them over the hump.
