As you have no doubt heard countless times by now, the Chicago Bears have never fired a head coach in midseason in their over-100-year history. As you may also be aware, whatever the Bears have been doing for the past 38 years or so just isn’t working. This is one franchise that’s long overdue for a shakeup.
Matt Eberflus is the current Bears head coach, which means he’s also the guy currently benefiting from the organization’s unwritten policy of not making a leadership change before the offseason. If there’s ever been someone that needed to be cut loose though, it’s Eberflus, who now has a 14-29 career record after he and the Bears suffered their third straight loss on Sunday.
An NFL head coach is responsible for a host of things, and Eberflus has been subpar at most of them. He’s no good at picking coordinators, as the team just fired his OC for the second time in less than a year. His last defensive coordinator, Alan Williams, resigned under suspicious circumstances last year.
A head coach is supposed to help his players improve, but many Bears have stagnated or regressed under Eberflus’ leadership, especially on the offensive side of the ball. A head coach is supposed to inspire confidence in the fanbase, and I don’t want to speak for everyone in Bears nation, but we are not a confident bunch right now.
Eberflus’ in-game decision-making has left much to be desired, as he’s thrown away near-certain victories with choices that left most observers scratching their heads in real time. For all of the above reasons and more, Matt Eberflus should no longer be the head coach of the Chicago Bears.
If the Bears were smart, they’d buck tradition and fire Eberflus now so that they could get a jump-start on the interview process. There will be other teams this offseason that are looking for a new head coach, but unlike most years, there are great candidates out there that aren’t tied to other head coaching or coordinator positions that the Bears could bring in right now to turn things around. Let’s look at three of them.
Bill Belichick has the pedigree to make the Bears winners
People have gotten a laugh at Bill Belichick’s expense in the past year. Sure, he absorbed some jokes at Tom Brady’s roast, and sure, his girlfriend may or may not be old enough to rent a car, but the man can flat-out coach.
Belichick has a strong argument to be called the greatest coach in NFL history, and he’s just out there waiting to be hired after his phone never rang last offseason. This is a guy with six Super Bowl titles as a head coach and two as an assistant. He built the Patriots dynasty and created “the Patriot way.”
Belichick is famous for his simple but effective message to his players: do your job. That’s something the Bears need to hear right now. Fingers are being pointed, rumors are circulating, and meanwhile a lot of guys are just not performing on the field. We’re talking missed assignments, boneheaded penalties and lazy routes being run.
Belichick would bring accountability to a team that sorely needs it. Teams may be scared off by the fact that he’s 72 years old, but his last Super Bowl win was just five years ago, and listening to him each week on the ManningCast shows that he clearly still knows his stuff. He wouldn’t be a doddering old man talking about the good old days, he’d be a coach that players still respect, and the Bears would be a better team for it.
Bears fans miss the Lovie Smith days. Why not bring him back?
Andy Bernard of The Office once said, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” Bears fans certainly feel the pain of that sentence, as they’ve spent the past 12 years since former head coach Lovie Smith was fired wishing that the team could return to what it was like under his leadership.
Lovie went 81-63 in nine seasons with the Bears, even leading them to the second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, a game that I and many Bears fans still contend would have gone our way if safety Mike Brown was healthy. His teams had an identity and got the most out of their talent.
Lovie is beloved in Chicago for many reasons, not the least of which being that he was a great guy and a great coach. He even helped the Bears long after he left by refusing to tank as head coach of the Houston Texans, leading them to an improbable comeback win in the final game of the 2022-23 regular season that effectively butterfly-effected Caleb Williams into Chicago.
Matt Eberflus has kept his job because he’s a good defensive coach. Lovie is too, but whereas he was saddled with a lack of offensive talent during his time in Chicago, now he would inherit a young exciting quarterback, an explosive rookie receiver and much more.
Lovie was fired after going 10-6. Bears fans would kill for that right now.
Mike Vrabel is the kind of no-nonsense long-term solution the Bears need
I don’t know about the rest of you, but if a guy says he would cut off his own penis to win a Super Bowl, I’m going to run through a brick wall for that guy.
Mike Vrabel may not have to resort to self-castration or deals with the devil to get a ring, because the Bears have a roster that’s an offensive line away from Super Bowl contention, if only the right coach was in place to lead it. Vrabel is that coach.
Vrabel is the perfect fit for Chicago. He’s a former linebacker with a proven track record of coaching success. He quickly rose through the coaching ranks after his playing days were over, eventually leading the Titans to the 1-seed with Ryan freaking Tannehill as his quarterback just three years ago. That’s coaching on hard mode, but the Bears have the pieces in place to make his job considerably easier.
Vrabel’s coaching ability propped up a subpar roster in Tennessee, and we’re seeing now just how bad it really was, as Brian Callahan has stumbled to a 2-7 record in his first year.
Vrabel is currently serving as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns. I’d be surprised if he hadn’t already punched Halas Hall into his GPS to see how long it would take to get there. Let’s make it happen.
