The last time the Chicago Bears promoted a head coach from within after firing another was in 1972, when they hired offensive line coach Abe Gibron to take over for Jim Dooley. That resulted in the worst three-year stretch any Bears coach has ever had. As a result, the organization hasn’t done it in the five decades since. With Matt Eberflus suffering multiple hammer blows to his grip on the job over the past month, it became clear nothing short of a miracle would prevent a change at head coach this off-season. Discussions of names like Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, Joe Brady, and others are already underway. However, there is also an undercurrent of buzz for another: offensive coordinator Thomas Brown.
Brown was hired as passing game coordinator earlier this year after a rough one-year stint as offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. His influence on the team was minor until offensive coordinator Shane Waldron got himself fired following a brutal three-game stretch that saw the Bears only score 27 points. Brown got the “promotion” out of sheer desperation. In mere days, the young coach appears to have galvanized the locker room, got Caleb Williams back on track, and posted almost 400 yards of offense against Green Bay. His leadership is impossible to miss, making some wonder if he might be the perfect heir apparent to Eberflus. Adam Hoge of CHGO is catching whispers of this inside Halas Hall, too.
In 14 years of covering the Chicago Bears, I can’t remember a coach — head coach or assistant — that has given off a more confident “leader of men” vibe as quickly as new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown.
And yes, that’s based off an extremely small sample size of two press conferences, but also previous conversations with him earlier this year, what his players have said about him in the last ten days, and other private conversations with Halas Hall sources.
Granted, the bar was pretty low when Brown took over as offensive coordinator on Nov. 12 after head coach Matt Eberflus fired Shane Waldron. But this was a situation in which Waldron had clearly lost the room. Brown quickly got it back, despite only leading Saturday morning meetings during the first 10 weeks of the season.
In an unrelated conversation Thursday, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said something important that still applies to what has transpired on the offensive side of the ball in the last two weeks:
“Players know what’s real and what’s fake. They’re the smartest people in the room. They know because people are always trying to take advantage of them. People are always trying to take what they have. You cannot be fake in front of players. You have to be real, you have to stand in front of them and you have to lead them like men.”
By all accounts, Bears players believe Brown has done an exceptional job of doing exactly that over the last 10 days.
Even before he stepped up to the coordinator level last year, there were serious rumblings that he was a head coach in waiting. The former running back seems to carry the same type of aura as Mike Tomlin has for years in Pittsburgh. He has that same calm exterior mixed with a demanding approach. Everybody gets held to the highest standard. There are no moral victories or grading on a curve. If you don’t win, it’s a failure. End of story. Everybody gives their best, or you don’t play.
Keep in mind Bears team president Kevin Warren worked with Tomlin in Minnesota. He would likely notice the similarities, which may explain why SM sources revealed the team is watching Thomas Brown carefully. They feel the same presence but won’t jump to any conclusions. They want to see how the rest of the season plays out. One thing is clear. The players can feel it. If he already has a grip on the locker room, that is a vital first step.
