It was somewhat confusing when the Chicago Bears chose Matt Eberflus as their next head coach in 2022. GM Ryan Poles’ explanation at the time was relatively straightforward. He felt Eberflus embodied many similar qualities to Lovie Smith: steady, resilient, and a stickler for hard work and effort. Bringing that back should finally get the organization back to a level they were competitive in the 2000s. People bought into it mostly because they didn’t have a choice. Still, there were some reservations.
As it turns out, those instincts were correct. It always felt like the Bears settled for a candidate nobody else wanted. You have no idea how accurate those assessments were. According to Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune, Eberflus’ standing was so low that he was on the cusp of no longer being employed with the team he worked for at the time.
Inside league circles, many wondered why Poles had been so enamored with a candidate who hadn’t generated much buzz and wasn’t highly sought after. Sure, Eberflus had done a decent job coordinating the Indianapolis Colts defense and had been a head coaching candidate in several previous cycles. And in 2022, he was a finalist for the Jacksonville Jaguars job that eventually went to Doug Pederson.
But the Bears’ initial union with Eberflus elicited more shrugs around the NFL than commendations. Multiple league sources have told the Tribune that, had the Bears not hired Eberflus, the Colts were set to fire him, and he quite possibly might have had to seek a position coach role elsewhere in the league.
Instead, Poles handed him the Bears head coaching role.
Rather than go for an obvious top candidate, they zeroed in on a guy who wasn’t even good enough to keep a coordinator position with his current team. Poles and McCaskey were convinced that guy was the perfect solution to their head coaching woes. If that doesn’t sum up this organization, nothing does. Their constant inability to identify actual leaders is mind-blowing. No wonder the guy ended up a total dumpster fire. He was completely ill-equipped for the task. The team he worked for, who thought Jeff Saturday was an adequate replacement for Frank Reich, didn’t think Matt Eberflus was good enough. Let that sink in. Now the Bears are convinced Poles deserves another shot at hiring a head coach? They must be high on something.
It is beyond obvious the GM is a bad judge of character. The fact he may have learned anything in the three years since that hire is an unnecessarily dangerous gamble to take with the future of this franchise for the next 10-15 years hanging in the balance.
