The Big Question Is About Matt Eberflus

The Bears report for camp this week, possibly all except for second-round safety holdout Jaquan Brisker.

There will be questions for them in Year 1 of a rebuild around every turn.

It's almost an endless list and some are serious but some almost comical, funnier even than the revelation Jay Cutler wants to host a radio show regularly in Chicago.

How much improvement can they anticipate from Justin Fields in Year 2, but Year 1 of this offense? In other words, is this Mitchell Trubisky syndrome all over again?

Can this entirely inexperienced offensive line even keep Fields in an upright position?

Will they get Roquan Smith the contract he deserves or will be become another Allen Robinson, allowed to fester with a franchise tag next year until eventually being discarded after one down season in the prime of his career?

Ditto for David Montgomery, who only seems to pour his soul into every 3.9-yard run while being mauled from all sides behind his struggling line?

Has that been an Eddie Jackson doppleganger at safety for two years, has the real one returned and has he remembered now that a receiver in the NFL must be touched down if he falls to the turf without being tackled?

Did someone provide Cole Kmet with GPS to the end zone?

Is Robert Quinn going to treat training camp the same way he did voluntary and mandatory offseason work, and did he already make reservations with Two Men and a Truck?

We know that Kyler Gordon can dance but can he cover an NFL receiver?

Attention, ladies and gentlemen, please, is there a receiver in the house?

Has anyone else been arrested this past week?

Or last night?

Of all the questions the Bears face as camp begins, the biggest is not about Fields specifically or Darnell Mooney or Smith or even the raw three-headed tackle monster of Braxton Jones-Larry Borom-Teven Jenkins.

Rather, it is simply this:

Can Matt Eberflus and staff rapidly elevate a team woefully short on explosive talent from early in the draft?

After all, this is about winning and even in a rebuilding year it takes the hint of victories to keep the fan base energized. Sundays become monotonous quickly when a team is buried in the basement before the leaves even begin to fall in Chicago.

Thanks to the efforts of former GM Ryan Pace, there are only four first-round picks on this team: Robert Quinn by the St. Louis Rams from back in 2011; N'Keal Harry, thanks to a mistake by Bill Belichick; Fields; and Smith.

It's largely a collection of castoffs who were undrafted free agents, like Byron Pringle, Lucas Patrick, Nicholas Morrow and Sam Mustipher.

They do have Lamar Jackson, but sadly, it's not that Lamar Jackson.

Of 90 players, only 16 were selected on the first two days of the draft and Dante Pettis, Darrynton Evans, Mario Edwards Jr. and Shon Coleman are among that group. Those players weren't thought of by the teams who drafted them as difference makers, so expecting it with the Bears is stretching the imagination.

There are only nine players here who were drafted on Day 1 or Day 2 by the Bears and seven of those came on board since the 2020 draft.

Again, thank Pace for that.

Bill Polian, Ted Phillips and George McCaskey himself hand-picked Eberflus for this assignment after he quickly elevated an entire defense in Indianapolis from the bottom of the league with only a few significant lineup changes.

This time it's an entire team Eberflus must turn around quickly, and even against the weak schedule facing the Bears this year it can be a formidable task.

If Eberflus succeeds to any extent in 2022, it could be the momentum generator that makes for a sudden transformation, like the one Zac Taylor had with Cincinnati in three seasons.

If not, this season quickly becomes prelude to the 2023 draft and a free agency period when the Bears will have money to pay for real game changers.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven