When discussing head coaches who are on the hot seat through the first month of the 2023 season, one name seems to top most lists. That is Matt Eberflus. It sounds unbelievable. The Chicago Bears head coach only started his second season. Yet that is how disastrous his start has been. After going 3-4 in his first seven games, Eberflus has gone 0-13 since. That is not something you can explain away. Yes, the Bears are rebuilding, but even teams doing that are able to win a game or two occasionally.
That hasn’t been the case for Eberflus. What makes it worse is the last six games have ended in blowouts. He’s not even keeping them close anymore. It looks like he is in danger of becoming only the second Bears head coach to get fired after two seasons, joining the infamous Marc Trestman. There are plenty of reasons for this rapid downturn, but the coach himself can trace it all back to when he first arrived.
Matt Eberflus made two choices that have haunted him.
#1 – Gambling on Luke Getsy
Eberflus knew what he wanted when he took over the Bears. He wanted an offensive system built around a steady, reliable running game. The wide-zone scheme was by far the most popular and successful in the NFL. So Eberflus’ idea to bring it in was a good one. Where he went wrong was in his choice of man to do so. Getsy was completely untested as an offensive play caller. He’d never done it at either the college or pro levels. Logic suggests a defensive head coach should seek out an experienced offensive coordinator.
Klint Kubiak had a solid year in Minnesota in 2021 before the coaching staff changed. His father helped make the wide-zone what it is today. Brian Schottenheimer was also a man with 12 years of coordinating experience, including productive stops in New York and Seattle. There was also Greg Olson with his 14 years; some of them spent learning under Sean McVay in Los Angeles. Eberflus took a gamble on Getsy, and as we know, gambles have a bad tendency to go wrong. Chicago’s offense has now scored fewer than 20 points in 11 of 20 games.
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#2 – Handing play calling over to Alan Williams
This one made even less sense. It spoke of a remarkable lack of self-awareness by Matt Eberflus. He’d just spent the past four seasons being one of the more successful defensive coordinators in the NFL. He knew how to call plays. Yet he chose to hand that job over to Williams, who hadn’t done it since 2013. His two seasons at the job were also noted for being some of the worst the Minnesota Vikings franchise had ever seen. Yet Eberflus went ahead with it anyway. The results were painfully predictable.
Williams’ defense allowed 27 or more points in 12 games between September 18th of 2022, and September 10th of 2023. People can blame some of that on a lack of overall talent. However, it was clear from watching the film that Williams had no answers from a schematic point of view. Opponents were always multiple steps ahead of him. Eberflus has finally taken back play calling duties, but it might be too late. The defense is riddled with injuries, and their confidence is in the toilet.
Eberflus could soon find himself unemployed a few months from now. If so, most of his problems will be traced back to those two decisions.
looks that way this year
I honestly thought the Bears were deliberately tanking last year.