Bear Digest

Bears 2024 Report Card: The Coach, GM and the Final Tally

Grading the Bears at head coach, general manager, and their overall mark for a 5-12 season when they broke in a new quarterback and ushered out an old coaching regime...again.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Bears' season for Matt Eberflus ended in Detroit with a time management fiasco, just one of several late-game disasters.
The Bears' season for Matt Eberflus ended in Detroit with a time management fiasco, just one of several late-game disasters. | Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Part 3 of 3

A year ago the defining moment for the 2024 Bears season occurred.

The schedule hadn't been announced and they barely had returned from Green Bay to end a 7-10 season when they came out after meetings and announced the return of Matt Eberflus.

Did Ryan Poles not talk to Jim Harbaugh or his agent, the Bears GM was asked.


Looking a bit agitated, Pole answered: "No. I haven’t talked to Jim. He’s the coach at Michigan."
Just to be sure, Poles was aske if he considered Harbaugh an option at all.

BEARS FINAL DEFENSIVE AND SPECIAL TEAMS GRADES FOR 2024

BEARS FINAL OFFENSIVE GRADES FOR 2024



"No, like I said, we're going with Matt and I gave you the reasons why. I didn't go through ... I didn't go talk to anybody."

With that, Poles cast is lot on the side of a coach whose leadership and hold on the locker room slipped away week by week all while his inability to stay on top of game situations as a manager of his whole team vanished.

The decision, along with several Poles personnel decisions, combined to take down the 2024 Bears and force a reboot to the rebuild.

Here is the final head coach grade, the personnel grade and final overall grade for the season.

Head Coach: F

Eberflus ended his career, for all intents and purposes, by choosing Shane Waldron from a group of offensive coordinator candidates that included Liam Coen, Kliff Kingsbury, Thomas Brown, Greg Olson, Klint Kubiak, Marcus Brady and Greg Roman.

When the season started, it became apparent Waldron and rookie QB Caleb Williams weren't on the same page as he first quarter of games became nightmares and they were eventually trailing first in 15 of 17 games. When they could only get three points at home against lowly New England, it was time to launch Waldron and use Brown, their passing game coordinator.

Eberflus botched the end of the Hail Mary game by allowing the Commanders to get in range for the play, then didn't call a timeout he had to make certain everyone was on the same page. Allowing the time to run out on them in Detroit with a timeout in hand was the last straw but other questionable Eberflus moves came at the end of the first half against Arizona when they allowed a 53-yard TD run to break open a tight game.

Players openly defied him, and eventually Jaylon Johnson did it to his face in Detroit after the game.

Eberflus had an inkling this team didn't buy what he was selling after the 2022 season, when players were questioning him in exit interviews. Apparently their concerns went unsolved. The team rotted from within, not by taking it out on each other but by sticking together and taking it out on Eberflus.

General Manager: F

Poles and Eberflus did not factor in the loss of Justin Fields in their running game and overestimated how good their offensive line was as run blockers. The switch back to a more conventional style of QB than a runner put pressure on the linemen to be better run blockers than when the team led the NFL and was second in rushing in 2022 and 2023. It was predictable, but not by Poles and Eberflus and the offensive line struggled all year. Poles overestimated the ability of his offensive line and it meant 68 sacks for Williams.

In free agency, the Bears need running back help but Poles didn't want to go after the top level guys like Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry and Aaron Jones. He settled for paying about $4.5 million less a year over three years for D'Andre Swift, who broke seven tackles. Justin Jones left the Bears in free agency and it was determined between Poles and Eberflus that Gervon Dexter would be able to take on the difficult and essential 3-technique spot. Jones had 22 tackles for loss in two seasons. Dexter made four tackles for loss this year.

Once again a Poles free agent decision burned them as tight end Gerald Everett was a key acquisition and he produced eight receptions. They weren't getting an edge rusher even though they needed one, and determined their rush would come from Montwz Sweat and inside from Dexter while a handful of journeymen types could handle the other side. They got journeyman type pass rush along with a lot of chip blocking on Sweat's side because teams knew the other side was void of pass rush talent. When Poles had the chance to go all out to bring in Matt Judon to solve this, he wouldn't take the extra step to complete the trade and let the Patriots trade him to Atlanta.

Pole had successes in the draft with Rome Odunze, who showed he should have been used even more. He traded for Keenan Allen, whose production was similar to what former Bear Darnell Mooney had in Atlanta. Could they have saved themselves $10 million more and a fourth-round pick they gave up for Allen simply by retaining Mooney? Sure.

Poles has been criticized for using a fourth-round pick for punter Tory Taylor, and it was early for a punter. Then again, where would they have been without 34 punts inside the 20? Maybe three or four wins instead of five?

Overall 2024 Bears Grade: D-


The players held their own despite the incompetence above.

The fact they got Caleb Williams and eventually saw him producing against Green Bay at the end of a game made a miserable, gut-wrenching season a small bit more palatable.
That and Odunze's 54 catches provided a much-needed ray of hope.

Now they need to start this reboot by hiring the right coach.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.