Bear Digest

How Bears Reboot Quickly with the Ideal Head Coach Candidate

Analysis: Rebooting rather than rebuilding will require a new Bears coach with specific abilities and here they are ranked in order of importance.
Gene Chamberlain|
D'Andre Swift looks for running room against Detroit. Rebuilding a consistent ground game will be a requirement for the new Bears coach.
D'Andre Swift looks for running room against Detroit. Rebuilding a consistent ground game will be a requirement for the new Bears coach. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Pete Carroll revelation, the ensuing fan revulsion, and the obvious Ben Johnson discussion during Lions week aside, Bears real head coaching discussion will occur in earnest starting at the end of next week.

They can't begin interviewing until three days after the season ends, and if they want to talk to Johnson soon they need to root for the Lions to win out Sunday at San Francisco and then the following week at home against Minnesota.

That way, Detroit wins top seed in the NFC, a first-round bye, and Johnson can be interviewed in the bye week by the Bears instead of waiting.

However, if they want to interview Johnson a second time then they might have to wait until the bye week prior to Super Bowl week.

The rules allow interviews for the week post-conference championships when there is no game.

All of this is a matter of formality.

What they are actually looking for is the real issue in play.

SI.com's Albert Breer continues to stress this leader of men aspect in reports he made. Other reports, like Adam Schefter's, focus more on the offensive wizard to team with Caleb Williams.

Whoever the candidates are, here are the main areas ranked in order that must be addressed for whoever gets hired. Consider these when examining who they will interview.

5. Restoring Locker Room Confidence

After Jaylon Johnson reportedly erupted by hollering at Matt Eberflus following the Detroit loss, the Bears have operated largely with polite respect for Thomas Brown but honestly, how far behind him can they be when they're 0-4 and suffered three straight convincing defeats before stumbling around and nearly winning against Seattle?

The new coach will need to gain control of the locker room. This isn't necessarily a difficult or complicated task. The players are looking to be led, and led by someone who doesn't have the gimmicky HITS principle as the basis for his coaching regime.

Players aren't stupid. That had cheap scam written all over it from the day the Bears announced Eberflus' hiring. It's the kind of phony think high school freshmen might need.

A firm leader who speaks with authority and provides their direction is all they require and they'll get behind the right coach as the work they're doing is produces results in practice, then later in games.

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4. Game-Planning

How much real game planning has been going on when they have fallen behind first in 15 out of their 16 games, or when they have been outscored in first quarters 89-20. They're last in first-quarter scoring, of course.

Having a properly prepared game plan based on good advance scouting and quality control, with practice execution it the key.

Whether they actually have this person won't be known until they start playing meaningful games but their interview process needs to include questions aimed at situations and how they would have attacked certain defenses, certain offenses and they need to reveal how they'll approach the practice week.

Putting themselves in an immediate hole every game only increases the pressure on Williams each game. When they give him the football, they might as well be giving him a ladder so he can climb out of a hole every week.

3. Staffing

This is critical. It needs to be a connected coach who can bring in qualified coordinators and assistants.

Eberflus was horrible at building his coaching staff. A revolving door was necessary. Three offensive coordinators, two defensive coordinators and a head coach who was calling the defensive plays, three running backs coaches ... the list goes on an on.

When Eberflus was hiring almost an entirely new staff on the offensive side, it should have tipped off how many problems they would have.

Good assistants are the ones already employed but occasionally some slip through and the hire has to convince everyone he will be able to spot those assistants.

If he's hunting around for assistants at the last possible time while building a staff, being connected will be critical to find assistants who have skill and might be available.

Of special importance is hiring an offensive line coach who can transform a group of underachievers. Retaining Chris Morgan for this season only made Eberflus look lazy or out of touch with the offensive side of the ball. They gave up more than 50 sacks in both of his first two seasons and even if you think Justin Fields held the ball too long, he is rather nimble and able to escape many sacks. The same is true with Caleb Williams' ability to get away. And they still have had three straight years with 50 sacks or less

This new line coach must be someone who can produce effective pass and run blocking.

2. Caleb Williams Development

Only second on the list but it is very close to most important. He is the franchise's future.

If it's an offensive side coach who will call plays, he'll need a coordinator who organizes and does the dirty work during the week. They'll need a quarterback coach with experience and at developing a young passer. The coaching staff they hired last year really hadn't developed a rookie passer into a starter.

They got what they could have expected from this. Shane Waldron definitely hadn't developed a rookie QB to success in the past and his underlings really hadn't, either.

A coach who is an offensive-side hire will have that edge of being able to relate to Williams better immediately. Who had confidence Eberflus was going to develop a quarterback? And he hired Waldron to do it, someone who had worked with veteran passers.

The quarterback looks lost at the end of games now because the coaching staff looks lost. Get one capable of developing a passer, one that isn't lost at the end of the games and the QB won't be lost, either.

1. Building a Running Attack

This isn't 1960s NFL, but the running attack is critical here because it will solve a lot of the other problems the Bears had this year.

It will make Williams better by providing play-action to keep the defense off balance. This allows for quicker starts by the offense and better game flow.

This is going to require the right offensive line and that's a matter for the personnel department, but they're not getting it done and they won't get a quick reboot done without building the line and a running attack.

The Bears went from first in rushing in 2022 to second in 2023 to 26th this year but added a more explosive back than they've had.

How does this even happen?

Williams was drafted into the best situation a rookie quarterback could have, it was often said. But he wasn't. He came to a team without a running attack.

They destroyed it by getting rid of their biggest running threat and the player who made the other runners better. He made their mediocre linemen better, too.

It was fairly obvious. Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus both should have anticipated this happening but Poles was in love with what he had done with his offensive line as a line guru and Eberflus knew only about his defense and the worthless HITS principle.

Their old running game was a sham, a gimmick based on the run threat offered by Justin Fields. He was never going to be a quality high-level passer necessary to win consistently in the NFL but he's fast and can run. The threat of the extra running threat in the backfield compromised defenses and let them get other backs involved at running who might not have otherwise been successful. They gained rushing yards easily until teams started using mesh strategy to contain Fields and then that Bears running attack also failed. They had no passing game because they had only one receiver and a quarterback who was mediocre passer and were stymied. Luke Getsy got fired.

When the Bears came back this year they had a standard running attack and a bunch of offensive linemen who were not good enough run blockers because their past success was exaggerated based on the QB's running ability. They were required now to establish the run early in games like most NFL teams must, and they couldn't do it. No running game, no balance, no fast start and no offense. Fire the coordinator, again.

They need an offensive coordinator/head coach who can establish a running game and line coach who can teach blocking techniques to get a standard NFL running attack into gear.

It might not hurt to have a combination back with both power and speed to start games, because D'Andre Swift seems like a breakaway threat but not the power threat who can wear down a defense.

If they rebuild a viable running attack immediately, they can turn the team around in one season.

No?

Jim Harbaugh changed the approach to effective balance and the Chargers are in the playoffs.

Everyone thinks the Commanders are going to make the playoffs because of Jayden Daniels' brilliance, and he has had a great rookie year.  They've also run for 2,290 yards and are third in rushing a year after they were 27th in rushing. They are 16th in passing and that's only two spots ahead of where they were last year.

The Bears defense is plenty good enough personnel-wise and in the same or similar scheme to hold up if partnered with an offense relying on the run and blance while protecting Caleb Williams with better blocking and play-action.

Do all of that and the results are better, the locker room is happier, the coach is well supported by players and suddenly they aren't chanting "sell the team" at home games.

Now, all they need to do is have Poles and Kevin Warren identify the candidate who can restore that running game, the confidence of the locker room, the ability to score early and often and one who can develop a QB.

Good luck with that.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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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.