I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know who Matt Eberflus was before the Bears hired him. I then saw the notification and didn’t really know what to think, but seeing that we hired a defensive minded guy for (at the time) a QB going into his second season had me confused.
I thought maybe it would work because anything was better than Nagy (at that point lol), but here we are today. I think a lot of fans didn’t like the hire at first and still don’t like it obviously.
Who did the Bears pass up on/who is someone they could’ve had if they didn’t hire Eberflus?
I was very underwhelmed. The stupid HITS thing just sounded ridiculous.
It was kind of like when you’re incredibly hungry and someone serves you a bowl of unflavored oatmeal. Its better than nothing but not by much
Who?
I literally didn’t know who he was when they hired him
I was apprehensive about signing a defense-oriented coach when it was clear that the focus should’ve been on Fields and the offense, since the defense looked fine at the time of his hiring. Thing is, Eberflus really hasn’t done anything since to make me think that was the right decision, and the defense seems no better than it was before he was hired, to say nothing of how the offense has been. I still believe Fields has the ability to be our franchise QB, but he lacks the tools and coaching at this time. As others have said, having Caleb Williams in the same spot wouldn’t likely yield much different results at game’s end with the current coaching staff.
I didnt like the focus on getting a defensive minded HC since we needed to develop Fields, but i also understood why the bears leaned that way since their prior hires did the same thing (going from Lovie to offensive minded Trestman to veteran defensive mind Fox to young upstart Nagy to defense again in Eberflus) but my concerns was the stats of the Colts looked okay on defense while he was DC, but fans were very happy to see him go which wasnt a good sign. My biggest issue was the fact they only seemed to interview Dan Quinn (another defensive minded HC because Ted Phillips has a type) and Jim Caldwell to go with Flus and neither of those looked like great candidates for what the Bears needed. I wanted Daboll, but he is Fat Nagy and i dont think we really missed out on him. It wouldve been great to see the Bears interview some young upstarts like a guy named Mike McDaniel or even O’Connell, but that was never going to happen with Polian consulting the Bears. So yeah, like i always do i had high hopes for whoever we hired but ended up disappointed. Rinse and repeat this offseason and will be back here in 4 years if we are lucky, 2 or 3 years if being realistic lol.
I agree it was a foolish hire. But, I do think that we will go offensive minded for the next hire for whatever reason we seem to alternate between the two.
I’m liking Eric Bienemy from Washington or Ben Johnson from Detroit as of right now, but I wouldn’t mind Harbaugh being our guy either.
Harbaugh is defensive minded but he knows how to build a football team and run one due to prior experience.
I’d be fine with any of the 3 candidates I listed though, but Eric Bienemy really should be a guy who Bears fans want because he’s making a 5th rounder in Sam Howell look decent as a passer and he’s doing that behind the worst o line in football
I agree on Harbaugh and Ben Johnson (harbaugh is offensive minded btw) but completely disagree on EB. His play calling was terrible today and from what i have seen (and heard from Washington fans) is a lot of what Howell is doing is making plays out of nothing moreso than Bienemy scheming plays for him. Some of the calls today had me thinking Getsy was coaching.
I remember it as a reaction to balance things after Nagy. We had penalty issues and the Club Dub culture, it gave the impression that there was a lack of accountability and discipline. To me it felt like they prioritized a disciplined approach, so they fell in love with the Eberflus CEO-style head coach.
At the time, I thought it felt like a practical but not exciting hire. Similar to how we grabbed John Fox to rebuild the culture.
I don’t think Eberflue is a bad coach, he’s just mediocre. His approach seems to be building the culture the Bears FO wants, but we’re plagued with execution issues at every level of the game. We’re not good enough to overcome the execution issues, especially when the mistakes are coming from the coordinators as well as the players.
Not ideal
I think we were just happy it wasn’t Dan Quinn lol. But I remember this last off season everyone thought he was a good coach and if you suggested anything different after a 3 win season you were destroyed.
Just on the offensive side of the ball they passed on Daboll (jury still out on this, but they did win a playoff game with Daniel Jones in Y1), Mike McDaniel (they didn’t even want to interview him LOL), Eric Bienemy (understandable because replacing Nagy), and Doug Pederson.
All of which would have been a better choice than Eberflus with a 2nd year QB. Although I’m not sure Quinn or Caldwell would have been any better and it seems those were the other realistic choices we were considering. The McCaskey family is so so lost.
It was a meh hire. I personally hated it but it seemed like the Pace/Fox pairing (although Fox was far more accomplished).
I’m not really sure why people were happy it was him versus Caldwell or Quinn. Both have had more success than Eberflus and I would’ve trusted Caldwell far more with Fields.
I am a minor Colts fan, and I was unimpressed – especially since his defense couldn’t stop the Urban Meyer Jaguars from knocking the Colts out of the playoffs the previous year.
Personally, I laughed. That the doofus McCaskey hired the same guys (Ryan/Matt), with the same backgrounds (asst. GM/Coordinators) using the same outside consultant process (old guy Polian, rather than old guy Acorsi) while consulting with the Maras and Rooneys.
When he was hired, I knew Eberflus wouldn’t be here when the new stadium was finished.
I remember Colts fans being pretty ‘meh’ about him when they were asked.