A few weeks ago, the team captains in the Chicago Bears locker room felt compelled to confront offensive coordinator Shane Waldron about the state of the offense after an ugly first three games. They urged him to get more vocal with guys. Don’t be afraid to coach hard. It felt like a red flag at the time, but the results improved. The Bears looked sharp over the next three games, all wins. Now, after two dispiriting losses in Washington and Arizona, both characterized by questionable coaching, it appears the players confronted Matt Eberflus and his staff again. TJ Edwards confirmed as much on 670 The Score.
By his account, a lot of honesty was shared. Guys weren’t mindful of each other’s feelings. Apparently it was strong enough to where Edwards felt compelled to avoid sharing details. However, he did make one thing clear. The coaches weren’t exempt from the confrontation.
“It was real. It was everyone understanding that what we’re doing right now isn’t good enough. It’s not to our standard. … I think we needed that a little bit…
…We weren’t sugarcoating anything. Stuff that was said, I’ll keep in-house. But I think it was just very genuine and real. There’s an understanding that from coaches to players, we all need to be better. … In this league, the really good teams take accountability. Not just players, but coaches as well. And I feel that we have a team that does that. But again, it’s one thing to say how good we can be and all those things, but it’s another thing to go do it on Sunday.”
TJ Edwards is the latest to raise concerns about the coaches.
Jaylon Johnson, Cole Kmet, D.J. Moore, and Kevin Byard have all taken turns. It is evident that the guys aren’t happy with how things have gone. This team is too talented to be 4-4. They have a top-10 defense and an offense stacked with proven playmakers. If they keep looking like they did the past two weeks, there is no way in hell they’re challenging the rest of the NFC North when the division games finally arrive. This locker room meeting feels like a last ditch effort to get everything out in the open to see where guys are at. Maybe it can yield similar results to a few weeks ago.
They better hope so. A loss on Sunday to the plucky but overmatched New England Patriots would be a death knell for many in that building. None more so than Eberflus. He is already teetering on the edge with a 14-28 overall record, a 3-18 road record, and a growing list of late-game collapses under his belt. TJ Edwards has been on winning teams before. He knows what they’re supposed to function like. This isn’t it. Hopefully, that real talk knocks some sense into the right people.
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Bears Captain DJ Moore needs to get a bigger mirror — and take a good long look.
Sunday, versus the Cardinals wasn’t the first time DJ dogged it — after having his feelings hurt.
If we had a top 5 defense, then I would punt on 3rd down.
I just wished all NFL teams were as open and honest as the Chicago Bears. It makes me feel proud to be a Bears fan. And I know my grandfather and father would be too.
How do we keep calling this a top 10 defense? I suppose in some categories you could call them that. I suppose if you only look at things like streaks of keeping teams to X points or less, you could call them that. But they don’t close. They routinely give up the big plays to any team that isn’t completely made up of losers. Any team with a pulse gives them problems. Want more proof? TJ Edwards pff 58.1 – below replacement grade Tremaine Edmunds pff 60.5 – below replacement grade Montez Sweat pff 73 – above average Andrew Billings… Read more »
We are underutilizing our best player. We should be punting 30 times a game.