Revisiting the tumultuous end of the Matt Eberflus regime as the Chicago Bears kick off the Ben Johnson era

NFL players don’t rip their coaches in the media.

Until they do.

And just before the end of Matt Eberflus’s head coaching tenure in Chicago, there was ripping a’plenty from two of the Bears’ biggest stars.

Hey, Mr. D.J.

Bears reporter: “In retrospect, how should you have handled the final sequence”

Matt Eberflus: “I like what we did” pic.twitter.com/4IRiGkoztK
— Chicago Jay (@Chicago_Jay1) November 28, 2024

Wide receiver D.J. Moore was notably vocal about his former head coach’s failings, saying after Chicago’s error-filled Thanksgiving Day loss to Detroit, “We could've just taken the timeout and regrouped, and gotten two plays off if that was the case. My view, I feel like the coach has got to call a timeout and regroup us."

That may seem benign, but, as noted, players simply don’t rip coaches in public. Until they do.

Moore wasn’t done, saying the day after Flus was relieved of his duties, “As the season was going, you just kind of figured that was going to happen. Thursday at the end of the game was the last straw. They [fired Eberflus]. Now we got [Thomas Brown] as the interim head coach, and we're going to go out there and play for him."

Again, semi-benign. Again, very rare.

J.J. Chimes In

All-Pro cornerback had a locker room meltdown after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, but was surprisingly forthcoming about his rant, explaining:

"There was frustration. There was words from myself that I expressed just from my frustration from losing. Part of what I said after the game was I've been losing for five years. I feel like a high-level player like myself, after a certain point, losing games how we've been losing games, somebody has to express something. It was a spur of the moment thing, and it went the way it went.”

We finally have footage of the Jaylon Johnson rant that got Matt Eberflus fired… https://t.co/DLzNGqhkDy
— Eliott71 (@Eliott711) December 31, 2024

Moore and Johnson agree that Flus wasn’t it. Hopefully Johnson will be Their Guy.