Bears Dysfunction Means Get Ready for a No Name Head Coach

If you’re Ben Johnson why would you come to the Bears? Yeah there’s the allure of Caleb Williams and turning him into a ‘franchise quarterback’, but does that outweigh the obvious flaw? Dysfunction. 

The Bears are dysfunction junction. Unlike the old “School House Rock” conjunction junction which hooks up words and phrases and clauses, dysfunction junction just continues to hook up Bears fans with disappointment after disappointment. It’s the junction of clueless ownership, a likely lame duck GM and a team that continues to underperform without leadership. This is the organization that allowed Ryan Pace to commit crimes against the roster for 7 seasons. It’s the one that allowed him to draft Mitch Trubisky with the 2nd pick, even trading up to get a player nobody else wanted that high in the draft.

Conjunction Junction (ABC/Disney)

This is also the same Bears team that allowed Matt  Eberflus to continue coaching the team at the beginning of the 2024 season, based on some meaningless wins at the end of 2023. Keep in mind, Eberflus had to fire, 2 offensive coordinators, a running backs coach and a defensive coordinator in his 2+ seasons in Chicago. Hardly a spotless record. Yet, probably because they didn’t want so much ‘dead money’, the Bears allowed Eberflus to continue at the helm of a rudderless ship. No discipline, no accountability, no plan and no, not a lot of wins either. 

So, the Bears fired Eberflus, after he blacked out at the end of the Thanksgiving game in Detroit. A miracle of sorts for a franchise, which had never let a head coach go in the middle of a season. Yeah, it got that bad. 

All that being said, get ready Bears fans for the likes of Anthony Weaver (who?), Joe Brady and Matt Campbell. They’re probably all good guys and good coaches, but in a coaching cycle that could define the next 10 years of Bears’ football, none of these guys are the answer. This hire is too important to continue to operate in the mediocrity, of Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy and Eberflus. I mean come on. 

Marc Trestman (Bleacher Report)

The best candidate, in my opinion is already off the table. Mike Vrabel, reportedly agreed to a deal to coach the team he once played for, the New England Patriots. Vrabel was a part of Superbowl teams in New England and is a no-nonsense kind of coach a fractured locker room needed. 

The Bears seem to think fans will be impressed at how many candidates they’ll interview. Why would anyone be impressed by indecision and lack of vision for a franchise? That’s all the long list of a reported 18-19 interviews shows everyone in the NFL. Looking for a candidate to emerge, rather than zeroing in on the one you want, no matter the cost, shows how messed up this search is already. I’m hoping that maybe the list is a smokescreen of some sort and that Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren already know who they want and are just going through the motions. If you believe that, I have some land in Arlington Heights to sell you, real cheap. 

Ryan Poles (Chicago Sun-Times)

Who is making the decision anyway? Warren says it’s Poles, but in the same breath will tell you he has some sort of final cut or input. Poles says he’s the point person, but is he really? You see what I’m saying here? Why would a head coaching candidate want to come here? The structure is archaic. It’s out of touch with reality. How about letting the FOOTBALL people make the FOOTBALL calls? What a novel concept. 

As I sit here watching the NFL Playoffs, it’s amazing to me how far this Bears team is from actually competing in the NFC North, let alone “taking” it from anyone. 

Bears Lose Without Even Playing This Weekend

The NFL spoiled its fans with the action of this past weekend. Sometimes the playoffs don’t live up to the hype, but in this case, wow. Every game was won on the final play of the game. Field goals in the 49’ers/Packers, Bengals/Titans and Rams/Buccaneers games and the OT touchdown pass by Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs/Bills game. Incredible drama and action. 

Now, while I was watching the Chiefs/Bills game yesterday, I was absolutely amazed at the resiliency of both teams and the never say die attitude. Not only was there attitude, but there was talent. Real talent was on display. As a fan though, I was really conflicted. I loved what I was seeing out of Mahomes, you know, the guy that the Bears’ former GM didn’t even want to bother with. Allen was ridiculous too. After seeing a game plan that actually suited the QB, I wanted to scream. WHY?? 

Watching these games, especially the AFC game yesterday, I wondered, are the Bears actually an NFL team worthy of competing at this level? Right now, the answer would be no. I couldn’t imagine the previous coaching staff, being organized enough and have the wherewithal to have a quarterback rally a team with only 13-seconds left in a game. The Bears as constructed the last seven years are light years behind any of the playoff teams that competed so far. Light years. 

 

How did we get here? It begs several other questions. Why couldn’t the Bears even sort of develop a quarterback over the last four seasons? I mean, Mitch Trubisky may not have been very good, but he showed some flashes. So, what if the stubborn former head coach, hired by the too smart for his own good former GM, adapted instead of insisting that a square peg fit into a round hole? What if the same principles could be applied to another first round pick, that actually has a future? It makes me ache for an actual plan for an organization, that understands the questions to ask and the decisions that need to be made. 

For Bears fans, the last four years, is time you’ll never get back. While Matt Nagy was as nice a guy as there is, the determination to make HIS offense the law, regardless of the crimes being committed contributed mightily to his down fall. The sheriff, Ryan Pace, had no regard for the law and allowed his ‘officer’ to continue to rule with his own iron fist was complicit. So were the higher ups that looked the other way, when after a fluky first year, things fell apart and then crashed and burned. 

 

This is what absolutely frightens me about what may happen next. The same people are making the decision about what the future holds for Bears fans everywhere. The same people that signed off on trading up to draft a quarterback nobody else wanted, when a future Hall of Fame QB slipped and is now on to his 4^th straight AFC Championship game. The same people that allowed that man to hire a relatively inexperienced play caller to lead an offense that sometimes resembled a division two college game plan. 

 

From the outside, the Bears search for a GM and coach look unorganized and frantic. Interviewing so many candidates says to me, “we have absolutely no clue what we are looking for in a GM or coach, so we may as well interview them all”.  Maybe they’ll luck into something but I’m not counting on it. Teams that have a plan are going to move on candidates this week and quickly. The Bears may be left in the dust again. 

 

To me, hiring a coach before the GM is another recipe for disaster. Then again, not hiring a director of football operations, is the same thing. It just shows the arrogance of the man making the decision. George McCaskey admitted to being a “fan and not a football evaluator” in his very bizarre 60-minute press conference a few weeks ago. He is ultimately in charge and has no football acumen at all. He is relying on a very talented evaluator that has been out of the game for ten years. Bill Polian is in the Hall of Fame, and he belongs there, but the game has changed completely since he last ran an organization. 

 

I hope I’m wrong, and I will admit it if I am, but I have zero faith in this team getting it right on either hire. It’s laughable to see other organizations flourishing and the Bears, a charter NFL franchise, continuing to bottom feed. This is and always has been a Bears town, and it seems like ownership is taking advantage of that. These next hires are critical and will show the fans how serious this team is about winning. Can you trust them to do the right thing? Trust is waning.