FIRING EBERFLUS MEANS THE BEARS CAN SCREW UP YET ANOTHER COACHING HIRE
They finally dismissed the self-professed creator of losses — 5-19 in one-score games — but the Halas Hall bosses are a bigger problem than Eberflus, who failed like three other coaches since 2013
In an endless barrage of corporate malfunction — the Bears are worth $6.4 billion and still owe their presence to George S. Halas, who would be 129 years old — the silly boys fired Matt Eberflus while he assumed he would coach next week. The rest of us knew he was gone. The football world knew he was gone.
But not George McCaskey, Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles, who waited until late morning for a decision that should have been announced after his timeout paralysis Thursday. An ideal world, of which they’ve never belonged in the NFL, suggests they made quick calls to possible long-term replacements. Would that be too much to ask for a franchise that has won just one of what-will-be 59 Super Bowls? Wouldn’t that make some sense for a team that saw Eberflus blow a game with a Hail Mary and another game with a flawed kicker and another game when he had 32 seconds and failed to call a timeout?
Nope. They waited a while longer, which is Halas Hall’s sluggish way of life.
“I’m going to be working on finishing up this game and ... working to San Francisco,” Eberflus said Friday.
Why did they force him to utter such nonsense? Finally, they fired a coach with games left on the schedule. He was 14-32 and 5-19 in one-score games.
“God don’t make mistakes,” texted safety Jaquan Brisker, among many players relieved today if not happy.
If nothing else, Bill Belichick is available as the champion of six Super Bowls as a head coach … but he has trashed Poles’ work as general manager on national broadcasts. If nothing else, Ben Johnson was agape when he saw Caleb Williams in the second half and almost was burned … but he has little interest in a big-market job, his representatives are telling media, and has less interest in a dysfunctional organization.
Who? Anyone? Kliff Kingsbury will say no after the Bears rejected him in the offensive coordinator search for Shane Waldron, who was fired. Bobby Slowik’s dad once ran the defense at Halas Hall, which means his son knows the flaws of the McCaskeys. Lincoln Riley might be convenient at USC, where he makes $100 million and led Williams to the Heisman Trophy, but the money is multiple times more than what the bosses want to pay.
Anyone else? Why would anyone of note work for Poles, who was lucky in his trade dealings with Carolina and otherwise hasn’t proved he belongs in the big job? Who wants to walk into a meeting and meet Virginia McCaskey, who is lovely at 101 but lets George hire the wrong people to run the charter franchise?
For now, Thomas Brown is the interim head coach. He has shown gumption in turning Williams loose, which proves Sean McVay was correct in praising him as an assistant head coach three years ago. His mistake was taking a coordinator position in Carolina with Frank Reich, who was fired. Is he the next head coach? With Eberflus in charge of the defense for three years, who becomes the coordinator on the other side?
Not since Mike Ditka’s heyday, until 1993, have the Bears flaunted a quality coach. Eberflus will be known for firing eight coaches, his game-day screwups and shifting his facial and hair styles last offseason. Someone will hire him as a defensive coach, but he never should have been employed by the Bears, who now look for their fifth leader since 2013. Marc Trestman is John Fox is Matt Nagy is Matt Eberflus. One man named Ryan — Pace — hired a Matt when another Ryan — Poles — hired another Matt.
The Bears would be better off without any Matts or Ryans, unless one is Matt LaFleur, who is taken in Green Bay. "I support Ryan and the decision that was made this morning. We understand how imperative the head-coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization," Warren said of Poles. "Our fans have stood by us and persevered through every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future." The team president and his colleagues couldn’t be more disaligned.
They should hire Belichick and give him total reign in Lake Forest.
That won’t happen. What we do know: Williams has three years left on his deal and must be looking at options. Welcome to Chicago. Already, he is Bear-ed out.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.