Bear Digest

Bears Success Clearly in Hands of Coaches After the Changes

Analysis: It's up to coach Matt Eberflus and his staff now to prove they know what to do with an offense of capable players at every position, including QB.

Gene Chamberlain

The Bears coaches have been handed keys to a brand new hot car, so they better not wreck it.
The Bears coaches have been handed keys to a brand new hot car, so they better not wreck it. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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If it truly is the dawn of a new Bears era, it's going to start with coaches knowing how to use this new talent they've amassed.

With this draft, the talk is of throwing the ball all over the field. They have the receivers to do it now, no question. While some viewed past attempts to support Justin Fields with weapons as dismal, it's true they brought in DJ Moore, had Cole Kmet and they didn't have the kind of draft capital or salary cap space needed to build everything they wanted since Ryan Poles became general manager. At some point, the QB needs to elevate, too.

Now Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, Gerald Everett and running back D'Andre Swift all are weapons for the passing attack, added to Moore and Kmet at once in a new offense under a coordinator whose history has been more toward balance than the running game.

Former Bears coach Dave Wannsted once took heat for saying "all the pieces are in place." This time, they really are.

"Yeah, I think it's going to be tough to defend, starting with practice," coach Matt Eberflus said. "We've gotta defend those guys in practice, which I think is going to be really good for our skillset on both sides of the ball.

"Because if you look at the receiving corps, they're all different. The halfbacks are all different. The tight ends are different. They're different skillset."

Pressure Is On the Coaches

What it adds up to is the coaching staff better not foul up this advancement into the age of Bears passing. They have been given the keys to a hot car, so to speak.

It's their responsibility to develop a quarterback. There's no doubt Waldron has had experience with quarterbacks of various types but his QB coach, Kerry Joseph, has only a year as an assistant QB coach to his credit.

The Bears need to get Williams started right. The process starts when he arrives for rookie camp in a few weeks. Contrary to some earlier reports, the Bears say the Skype calls he had with in the predraft process with Waldron did not involve going over their offensive system.

"Yeah, I think it's a group process," Eberflus said. "You know, and I really think that all of us together are going to do that at the same time, you know. But I really believe that Caleb is in a really good spot. He's starting at a good spot and he's going to finish at a good spot.

"We got to get him to the first game being the most prepared that he can be up to that point."

From what Eberflus has seen of Williams, the attitude is right on the QB's part. Bears legacy is filled with QBs drafted early who came in and didn't have the proper frame of mind. Cade McNown in 1999 will always be the classic example.

"Well, just when you go through the process with him, you can tell that he's all ball," Eberflus said of Williams. "He loves football, and he's diving into it.

"When he was a running back and then switched over to quarterback as a youngster there, and then the amount of time he put into really studying the position and really working his craft, trying to master his craft, really you saw that come when he won the Heisman and where he is right now in terms of his game. And you can definitely see that he loves the game."

While Williams' development is important, it's not a special operation. It starts simply enough, Eberflus said.

"Just to work; get to work," Eberflus said. "And he's going to do that. He's got to take one day at a time, get to work, go through the process, get to know his teammates, get the relationships going with every single guy, which he's done.

"I mean he's already called all of our draft picks already. He's already reached out to a bunch of players, some of the key players on our football team. So, that's really it. Just take one day at a time."

More technically, the beginning will be basic.

"It's really just the operation, right?" Eberflus said. "He's gonna have to operate the offense. He's gonna have to spit the calls. He's gonna have to be clean with his cadence and just operate in the offense. If it's in the huddle, from the no-huddle, and all the situations.

"He's gonna have to play point guard. That's what he does; distribute the ball."

Poles called it difficult to project how fast Williams will take to what they're planning to do at this time.

"What you look for is what they can do, what tools do they have, the instincts, their feel for the game," Poles said. "Obviously the physical part of it, as well. And then can you develop all the other pieces that they may be missing based on the system that they're coming from or just some struggles that they have."

It is going to be a drastic departure from Air Raid offense like Williams played in under Lincoln Riley for three straight years, to an NFL adapted West Coast style from the Shanahan-McVay tree.

"But you know, if they have a certain level of those physical tools then the sky's the limit and there can be a really high ceiling," Poles said. "That's what we look for and that's what Caleb has.

"He has a really high ceiling. Now, we got to pour into him. He's got to put in the time, as well, which we know both sides will do everything that we can to develop him and those around him and then we'll see where that ceiling is."


It's not exactly going to be difficult for Williams to put his name into team record books his very first year if these coaches know what their doing at all. The bar, as they say, is set low in Chicago.

Williams only needs 368 passes to break Kyle Orton's team record from 2005; only 196 completions or 12.26 per game to break Mitchell Trubisky's record from 2017; only 2,194 yards to break Trubisky's rookie record from 2017; and of all things needs only 12 TD passes to break the 82-year-old team rookie record of Charlie O'Rourke from 1942. Johnny Lujack in 1948 set the team's rookie passer rating record of 97.5, if 66 passes is enough to qualify. Otherwise, O'Rourke's 82.1 with 88 passes might suffice.

Drastic Change and Little Time

Poles' contributions this offseason alone caused changes at quarterback, two of the top three wide receiver positions, one of the two tight ends and to the starting running back. It's a lot of change and they see it as potential for drastic improvement.

"I would say that‚ I think it’s really rare to have the skill level be improved so much, but the culture and the people be top notch as well," Poles said. "To bring really good people and really talented players in, and for that to be the same, I think that's really hard.

"And you don't have to worry about having a bad locker room, bad culture or through adversity things going bad and it starts eating at itself."

After they parted ways with some players who have been part of everything offensively for several years, like Fields, Darnell Mooney and Cody Whitehair, it would be easy for bad feelings to develop if there isn't an immediate level of success.

"These guys love being around each another," Poles said. "They love football and that's coming up through scouting, those are kind of the staples. You want to make sure guys are passionate about football. They’re good teammates and you lean into that and you've got to have faith that when you put a bunch of those people together, they can be special. So I'm just proud of the people that we brought in on top of the talent as well."

The pride will be found in proof it all worked. It’s up to Eberflus and his staff now to pull this out of them.

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.