Breaking: Chicago Bears Fire Everyone (Almost) In Stunning….
Breaking: Chicago Bears Fire Everyone (Almost) In Stunning Coaching Purge to Rebuild Offense
This is a prodigious purge by the Chicago front office, but not really an unexpected one. There is much unhappiness with a Bears offense that has often ranged from inconsistent to flat-out awful over the last few seasons. And, while there was improvement this season, especially in the second half of the year, it wasn’t enough to fight off the belief that a house cleaning and a rebuild were in order.
Head coach Matt Eberflus, by the way, will reportedly remain with the team. The defensive specialist turned a failed coaching tenure into somewhat of an unexpected success over the second half of this past season when he began handling the defensive play calling after defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned from the position earlier last year.
These moves with the offensive coaching staff may have also tipped the team’s hand when it comes to their plans in the ongoing internal quarterback debate regarding whether to keep Justin Fields as their starter or use their no. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft to select USC blue chip QB prospect Caleb Williams. Generally speaking, one wouldn’t think that an entire offensive coaching house cleaning– and subsequent mass replacement of staff– would take place, structured around an existing starting quarterback who will then be forced to try and be productive with all the changes swirling around.
Logically, bringing in almost an entire new offensive coaching staff would seem to go hand in hand with a new quarterback being handed the reigns this next season. So, it might be safe to assume that Caleb Williams will be selected by the Bears after all…maybe?
Keeping Justin Fields?
Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog, who has firm connections with the team and is often right on the money with his calls regarding team direction, believes that Fields may be back, but with no guarantee regarding his spot as a starter.
“…There will be no commitment to Fields,” Hughes wrote via Twitter/X late on Tuesday, “Team will evaluate the QBs at Combine and make decision then. Taking QB at 1 is NOT off the table.
“Update: I do believe Fields will be on this roster in 2024, and will be competing this summer with a rookie QB.”
Stay Tuned
General manager Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren still have a lot of thinking to do after all, but the one thing they were sure of was that a new brain trust was needed on offense and that a purge of existing staff was the right call to make.
In two years under the guidance of Luke Getsy, the Bears finished 28th in total offense in 2022 (last in passing) and, in 2023, improved to 20th in total offense, but still failed in their passing game, ranking 27th in the league. In the 2023-2024 campaign, specifically, per ESPN Stats and Information, the team’s offense “ranked 21st in EPA/play (-0.052), 19th in success rate (41.6%), 19th in yards per attempt (6.7) and scored 37 touchdowns, which is tied for the eighth fewest in the NFL.”.