Bears HITS Rebuild: Defined and Tracked
Amid the sudden end to the Roquan Smith hold-in, comments coach Matt Eberflus made nearly flew in under the radar virtually undetected.
While Eberflus addressed the Smith situation, these comments took both a 30,000-foot view of his team as they try to finish a preseason unbeaten for the first time since 1994, and more significantly defined the essence of the Ryan Poles-Eberflus rebuild.
Eberlus was asked what changes now with Smith back practicing with the team. And technically Smith is practicing now for the first time at camp but he truly is "back" practicing because the fifth-year linebacker dutifully attended all voluntary or mandatory offseason practice.
"I think it'll probably change some things and here's what it is because when you have foundational floor—things that you can control. So what is that?" Eberflus said. "That's what our principles are—playing hard, great intensity, taking care of the ball, all of that and being smart. That's what we stand on, OK?"
It's Eberflus' HITS principle defined and everyone knows this, but then Eberflus went on to discuss athletic ability within the system.
"And then when you add talent to that formula, the buoy starts to go up, starts to rise like that," he said, raising his flat hand. "So then your team becomes better.
"So as you add talent to player acquisition, players coming back from contract talks, draft picks, that's what happens to your football team because you control the controllables. Adding talent, all of a sudden it starts to spark and get better."
This is how the Bears have rebuilt the team. They used the resources they had to try and bring in inexpensive players around quarterback Justin Fields who could apply the HITS principles best at a base level, and moving into the future with more cash under the cap available and draft picks they will add talent, causing the proverbial buoy to rise.
It only works if they have the HITS principle in play first. Otherwise, you have only a bunch of players and nothing driving them. They needed the right players with the right attitude buying into their system. They got it by using their meager amount of salary cash for low-budget, hard-working types on prove-it contracts who could fit the wide zone blocking scheme, the Tampa-2 defense, the Luke Getsy passing attack brought in from Green Bay that requires physical, blocking receivers.
The Rebuild Defined
This is it, for those who whined through the offseason about Poles and Eberflus and how they had gone about rebuilding the team.
These people wanted the Bears to dump their small amount of available salary cap cash on a big-name wide receiver in free agency, then simply go about trying to use the same offensive line and the same defensive players they had last year, apparently, but now in new offensive and defensive systems designed for lighter, moving players on defense and the offensive line, and bigger more physical wide receivers.
The Bears would have had to use those same players who failed to fit the systems or the HITS principle because they wouldn't have been able to bring in anyone else.
Besides no cap cash, they had no first-round draft pick or fourth-round draft pick and only six total picks.
Yet, Poles turned those six picks into 11 so he had more players at a base level available who could fit the systems and begin work as rookies.
This all has been clear to those open to seeing it but not those who believe the only way to rebuild a team is throw cash at one big-name player or two, a receiver or otherwise.
It's still a team game, and the Bears were a team in need of help at far too many positions to focus on one or two players. So they have built with what they have, applied the HITS principle as foundation and now will add talent going forward.
As Eberflus said, the buoy can rise.
Whether it eventually works isn't the issue here. It could ultimately fail because they chose the wrong players or have too many injuries. They could lose key assistants, like Getsy, from one year to the next and slow the progress of a rebuild.
Yet, they had a plan and used it.
This plan was not what they used to do, which was throw money at a situation, and when the money is gone, throw money from future years at the situation. And when they ran out of that, they threw future draft picks at the situation.
That was the Ryan Pace method.
State of the Team
Eberflus also gave a progress report on the Bears defense with Smith returning, but chose to expand focus to the entire team and not just the defense.
"Yeah, I would just say this: It's really the state of the team—we're a work in progress," he said. "We're a work in progress. We've got a lot of things to work on, unit to unit, position to position. We have a lot of stuff to work on. There's a lot of things.
"But we feel good about where we're are. We're playing clean football right now. We're playing aggressive. We're doing some good things, too. So I'd say we're right where we expected to be right at this point."
It would be easy for Eberflus to paint this picture rosy. Instead, he looked at two preseason wins when the backup defense and special teams clearly dominated, when the first-team pass blocking was shaky at best and the first-team defense had one bad performance against a good team and benefited from an absolutely terrible Seattle offense. He drew the right conclusion.
There's no sense getting carried away.
The Bears are a foundation with some fitting pieces at this point, nothing more.
At least they have that foundation, have those pieces and are all moving in the same direction toward a time when so much more is going to be possible.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
