It hasn’t been a good week for Matt Eberflus. The former Chicago Bears head coach thought he’d been able to move on from losing his job without consequences. He even got new employment as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Well, it seems some people at Halas Hall weren’t willing to let him dip without some criticism. GM Ryan Poles got the ball rolling yesterday when he openly stated new head coach Ben Johnson is a massive upgrade in terms of football intelligence. Not a ringing endorsement of the man he replaced.
However, Bears players weren’t going to let him have all the fun. The annual NFL Players Association survey came out this week, offering report cards for every team. They cover all sorts of topics like weight room, air travel, nutrition, and so on. Head coach is also included. Let’s just say Eberflus didn’t get a ringing endorsement. He was ranked dead last in the league at 32nd. Why? Two key reasons. Players felt he didn’t listen to their feedback and had a poor grasp on the team schedule.
“The players’ most frequent complaint was with their former head coach Matt Eberflus. The players felt like he lacked a willingness to listen to the players and the players’ leadership council, and he mismanaged the weekly team schedule. After the team completed the survey, the Bears terminated Eberflus and hired Ben Johnson as their new head coach.”
Matt Eberflus couldn’t escape his reputation.
Nobody knew it at the time, but these were the same issues that haunted him in Indianapolis as defensive coordinator. Some players felt he wouldn’t listen to them when they raised concerns on various topics. He had a bad tendency to dodge responsibility. That, among other things, was probably why he was about to get fired in 2022. How the Bears thought Matt Eberflus deserved to be a head coach is beyond mind-numbing. It is another painful reminder of how ill-informed the organization was about its candidates. That is the price you pay for employing former GMs who’d been out of the league for over a decade to run your search. Mercifully, it appears they have corrected those issues, leading to Johnson. Fans can finally act like they have an adult in charge for once.
People forget that the future was mortgaged when Poles started the teardown. Lots of bloated contracts. Future picks traded away in desperation. His first two picks were pretty solid. He signed “mirror foggers” like Dozier as stopgaps till he could get some of his guys in there. They were easy to purge as the new guys came in. Flus went along with the tank even though it killed his head coaching record for 2 years. The build started and Poles missed on a few guys as do even the great GM’s. Now we are at the reset point. The roster… Read more »
@Veece I’ll go along with your “Poles didn’t hire Eberflus” idea. But Poles HAS to take responsibility of giving Flus 2.5 years. He has to take responsibility for allowing Eberflus to keep Getsy for 2 full years. Even a BAD team like the Raiders canned Getsy after 6 games. And his “concepts” of a plan, and his training camp preparation prevented the Raiders offense from rectifying that situation. Same thing with Waldron. Training camp wrecks teams that don’t have experienced coaching that can start making changes. Unlike most people here, I don’t believe in firing people, if YOU know something… Read more »
For everyone who feels vindicated by the NFLPA survey’s results, keep in mind that Johnson hasn’t coached a game yet. However, I like his approach, and it’s close to the way I would run things. Personally, I believe in counting. Shoot 100 baskets and you get a certain result. Some of it is luck, or coincidence, but shoot 1000, and the results improve. 10,000 and the results improve. 100,000 and the results improve. For people who never thought players could get better, they don’t know anything. Can they be replaced by someone who does better? Yes. But until that “other… Read more »
Y’all know what I’m going to say: “It’s the coaching!” I’ve been called dummy, an idiot, a fan boy (for Fields), and every other name they can call me without being banned. Yes, it is the talent and players who play the game, but only one set of people control who gets prepared, who gets off the bench, who is drafted, who is signed, and who gets cut. (And one clue: it wasn’t Justin Fields and it wasn’t Caleb Williams). Washington went from fewer wins than the Bears, and deep into the playoffs. Detroit lost half their defense and made… Read more »
Had to end my last comment early because a supervisor came to ask me a question: with that being said, it’s refreshing as it finally feels The Bears are serious about making the correct decisions for this team’s future.