Opening day for the Chicago Bears started as an afternoon full of excitement and hope but quickly became sadness and despair. Week 1's meeting against the Green Bay Packers was supposed to be different than the previous eight, all won by the Packers.
We thought the Bears had the better QB, we thought they had the better skill players, and we certainly thought they had the chip on their shoulder.
Alas, some things never change.
After the 38-20 drubbing they received on the lakefront, it's fair to evaluate the entire operation from top to bottom.
Is Matt Eberflus the right head coach for the Chicago Bears?
Many of the talking heads had questioned GM Ryan Poles’ hiring of Matt Eberflus two years ago. Eberflus was considered a defensive-minded ‘old-school’ football coach in an increasingly offensive-driven league. Many of the best young coaches are considered offensive gurus (Brian Daboll, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and Mike McDaniel). After Sunday’s performance, it's fair to question the creativity and adaptability of this coaching staff for this new league.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, an offensive-minded coach, was able to put his young QB in comfortable situations for him to excel. Obviously, there are other factors (most notably, the offensive line), but there was a stark difference in adapting to the game as it was happening.
Changing up a coaching staff happens constantly in the NFL, and if Ryan Poles wanted to clean house, he could certainly do that. Sure, it's early to pull the plug on Eberflus, but young, up-and-coming, creative coaches are always waiting in the wings.
Firing Matt Eberflus means moving on from Justin Fields
Here's the problem: a new coaching staff likely means a new quarterback, too.
If Poles decided to can Eberflus and hire a new coach, Fields would have to learn an entirely new system while entering his fourth year with the team. It would be the third offense he'd be forced to learn in four seasons.
It normally takes a QB at least two years to understand and execute an offensive system to its maximum upside. The Bears would need to decide on Fields’ future while still not fully understanding if he is ‘the guy’ because of the number fo times they've asked him to learn a new playbook.
If this season goes sideways or the staff proves incapable, I would guess that Poles will draft another QB next year to pair with the coaching staff to reset that four-year window. The Chicago Bears have two first-round picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, and with the way the Carolina Panthers looked in Week 1 (one of the Bears' first-rounders), Chicago could find themselves in position to land one of the top quarterbacks in next year's class.
Maybe this is an overreaction to one bad loss to the Packers. But the proof is in the production on the field, and the Matt Eberflus-led Chicago Bears haven't inspired much confidence yet.
It's a long season, and there's plenty of time for Eberflus, Fields, and the rest of the key Bears to prove their system and talent will prevail. But the pressure is building and won't go away anytime soon.
