Adaptable Coordinator Sought by Bears

The Bears offensive coordinator search has begun with two candidates and coach Matt Eberflus has laid out what he's looking for in a nutshell.

It's a description allowing for rather broad parameters but it's easy to see how both of the reported candidates, Shane Waldron and Klint Kubiak, fit into this picture.

The key words in this search are "adjustable" or "adaptable." It would seem Eberflus wasn't satisfied with the way the previous offensive staff altered game plans, with the quarterback style and players available to them, or with the defensive schemes presented by opponents.

"I think the offensive coordinator, and really any good coach, knows how to adjust and adapt to the play caller or the quarterback because you have injury, right, you have changes, and you see it during the course of the year.

"How many backups played this year (in the NFL)? You've got to adjust your scheme to fit the quarterback and the skill set that you have available to you. Be that a quarterback, receiver, or tight end. The adaptability to do that during the course of a season is huge. So that would be the thing."

Eberflus doesn't want a coordinator who fails when presented with the challenge of a defense selling out to stop the running game, whether from the running backs or quarterbacks, or someone who gets hit with a wildly blitzing scheme and their response is to throw screen passes every other play. They saw that against Minnesota and defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Luke Getsy's response was a series of wide receiver screens. The plays were predictable and easily stopped.

When Eberflus came to Chicago, he emphasized the running game and so did Getsy. Eberflus hasn't backed off of the importance of the run. But the Bears were first in 2022 and second in 2023 in rushing and it helped them get no higher than 18th in scoring and 20th on offense.

"I think you have to have identity, for sure, but you also have to be able to adjust," Eberflus said. "You have to be able to stand on something. Running the football is one of them, and I also think that being adjustable and adaptable is another one."

The Bears started games this year with six touchdowns and a field goal on first drives, and last year led the league with 70.6 points on their first drives with a 3-14 team. It's been what happens after the first drives, when it's time for counter moves, that they struggled.

"Getting the explosives, which I think was referred to there, is obviously how you score points," Eberflus said. "That's how you score points, and again, we're going to have to continue to grow that way."

Waldron gave a good indication of his adaptability this season when faced with an injury to quarterback Geno Smith. He took Drew Lock, who hadn't started a game since 2021 and had a lifetime passer rating of 79.3 and had been deemed a failure by Denver and split two games against playoff teams. The Seahawks lost 28-16 to the 49ers and beat the Eagles 20-17 with Lock at quarterback, and he posted two passer ratings in the 90s, a 93.03 overall with 44 completions on 64 attempts, three TDs and two interceptions for 477 yards.

There's less of this type of example with Kubiak since he has been an offensive coordinator for only one season. Kirk Cousins played all but one game and that one loss suffered at Green Bay with Sean Mannion as QB was toward the end of a season when the Packers won the NFC North easily. Mannion was making only his third career start in seven seasons. The Broncos team Kubiak worked for in 2022 as passing game coordinator had a terrible passing game with Russell Wilson and Brett Rypien failing to hit 61% completions.

This season with the 49ers it's been smooth sailing for QB Brock Purdy with Kubiak working as passing game coordinator.

GM Ryan Poles jumped on board the adjustable/adaptable quality during the Bears postseason press conference. It's a trait carrying over not just to game plans and offensive style, but to the people they other coaches they work with on a daily basis.

"I've got a lot of faith in the process that we're going to get kicked off in terms of finding the right fit," Poles said. "We talked about it a little bit, but the ability to be adaptable to the (coaching) staff that you have is critical.

"Matt hit on it. We saw it across the league. There's some teams that actually got better with a lot of changes."

More than anything, they need to know the coordinator would have the ability to either take a mobile veteran passer like Justin Fields and win or even take a rookie, presumably Caleb Williams or whoever else the Bears might decided to draft, and also win.

"If you don't have the ability to adapt and adjust to the talent that you have at that position, it makes it really hard," Poles said. "So that's going to be a part of our process."

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