An Altered Bears Coaching Approach

According to one Bears assistant coach, a change in approach by this staff is in effect and it's something that could benefit the entire team.

Coaching an NFL team requires a wide-ranging skill set and apparently one of those talents the new Bears coaching regime has differs extensively from the old staff.

The ability to communicate is being emphasized at Halas Hall by Matt Eberflus' coaching regime.

Apparently their idea of talking with and knowing their players differs from Matt Nagy's staff. At least this is what has been ... well ... communicated.

Bears wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert was discussing the merits of Darnell Mooney during this past week's interview session with assistant coaches. It is really difficult to find anything to dislike about the team's No. 1 receiver and Tolbert doled out the praise.

"Darnell is a hungry football player," Tolbert said. "That's what I see when I see him. He's always wanting to know what play it is, even when he's not in the game. He’s kind of reciting what he has and what the other receivers have. He's a hungry football player. He's always here in the building, always up here looking at tape, asking questions, coming by my office."

It was here where Tolbert described the change in approach by this regime.

"It was to my understanding that they didn't come up to coaches' offices a lot of times in the previous regime and we told them it was an open-door policy for us," Tolbert said. "So he's always up in my office asking questions about different things."

It's not surprising communication lines between players and coaches would have been poor in the Matt Nagy coaching era because communication on the field often looked poor at times both on offense and defense.

The offense forever wasted timeouts in games because of confusion. Perhaps a more open line of communication during the week would have made clear the problems they had.

The secondary last year had several games where they inexplicably lost track of receivers at crucial times. 

"We've just got to be on, just be on one page," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "With D, I felt like a lot of things were more mental than physical things.

"I don't think there was ever too many times where there were like bad matchups but I thought we lost the game in playing a certain technique that wasn't applicable at that time, just kind of having mental errors."

Listening is a skill. So is being unafraid to listen. Exchanging thoughts and ideas can work wonders for efficiency and works far better than simply telling someone what to do.

The previous coaching staff spoke extensively about communication between coaches and even with the GM and ownership. Perhaps they should have communicated better with those who actually did the playing.

This Bears coaching staff appears to be ahead of last year's already in terms of this valued ability.

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