The Chicago Bears brass has seen enough. A day after the team dropped its sixth consecutive game — a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field — the Bears fired coach Matt Eberflus on Friday.
Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will become the interim head coach, just four games after the Bears promoted him to replace fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
General manager Ryan Poles said in a statement that he informed Eberflus of the decision after meeting Friday morning with Chairman George McCaskey and President/CEO Kevin Warren.
Eberflus had held his usual day-after-game news conference with reporters a couple of hours earlier, during which he said it was a “normal operation” at Halas Hall and he was confident he would be preparing for the Dec. 8 game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Instead, Poles thanked Eberflus in the statement for his “hard work, professionalism and dedication to our organization” on the way out the door. Warren said in a statement that he supported Poles’ decision.
“We understand how imperative the head coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization,” Warren said. “Our fans have stood by us and persevered through every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future.”
The Bears did not make Poles, Warren or McCaskey available to media Friday.
While the move is historic — this is the first time the franchise has terminated its head coach during a season — it was far from surprising, especially after the final-minute fiasco that defined Thursday’s loss in Detroit.
After rallying from a 16-0 halftime deficit and getting within range for a tying field goal in the final minute, the Bears melted down under Eberflus’ watch, most notably when he chose not to call his final timeout after the Lions sacked quarterback Caleb Williams with 32 seconds remaining.
Amid much commotion and disorder, the Bears got off only one more snap — and it was a desperate play at best, with Williams calling an audible and trying to hit Rome Odunze for a 41-yard, game-winning touchdown. The pass wasn’t close to being completed.
Eberflus defended his clock management after the game.
“I think we handled it the right way,” he said.
Much of the NFL world disagreed. And with the Bears and Lions playing on the national Thanksgiving stage, the breakdown by Eberflus’ team was subject to an avalanche of backlash.
Comments from Bears players in the visitors locker room at Ford Field weren’t much softer. Standout wide receiver DJ Moore lamented that the Bears “s−−− the bed” in the final moments, and tight end Cole Kmet said he wondered as time expired, “What the eff just happened?”
Eberflus’ team has been in free fall over the last month and a half, squandering a 4-2 start to the season and pretty much cementing another last-place finish in the NFC North.
The anguish within that six-game skid includes an 18-15 loss to the Washington Commanders as the Bears defense botched a final-play Hail Mary; a 20-19 home loss to the Green Bay Packers on a blocked field-goal attempt as time expired; and a 30-27 overtime loss at home to the Minnesota Vikings after the Bears rallied from 11 points down in the final minute.
Somehow Thursday’s loss was almost more unbelievable than all of those that came before it.
Eberflus’ record with the Bears goes into the books at 14-32. That includes a 2-13 division record, a 3-19 road mark and a 5-19 record in one-score games. During his first two seasons, the Bears went 2-13 against opponents that qualified for the playoffs. This season they are 0-6 against teams currently with winning records. The team’s inconsistency and inability to excel in big moments and big games has been well-documented.
Hired in January 2022 after four seasons as the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator, Eberflus has long been praised inside Halas Hall — most emphatically by Poles — for his ability to keep a team together through turmoil. But that turmoil has been constant during his three seasons in charge.
In the midst of a roster overhaul, the Bears lost their final 10 games of the 2022 season. They started 2023 with four consecutive losses, and the six-game skid this year has torpedoed their playoff aspirations.
The turnover of Eberflus’ coaching staff has been problematic. Earlier this month, the Bears fired Waldron after just nine games when it became obvious that the offense was falling well short of expectations and that Williams’ development was adversely affected.
Waldron had replaced Luke Getsy, one of five offensive coaches Eberflus fired at the end of last season. Eberflus also had to fire running backs coach David Walker during the 2023 season because of what sources said was inappropriate conduct. A month before that, defensive coordinator Alan Williams abruptly resigned amid odd circumstances, with sources indicating that Williams’ exit also was conduct-related.
To many around the league, Eberflus’ job status was in question coming out of last season as the Bears prepared to reboot at quarterback with the No. 1 draft pick they eventually used on Williams.
Poles, however, emphasized his belief in Eberflus’ coaching style and ability to lift a team, pointing to a stretch of five wins in seven games late in 2023. But that modest surge turned out to be the outlier in Eberflus’ coaching performance.
Now the Bears once again will search for a new coach, entering that market for the fourth time since the end of the 2014 season. Poles’ long-term job security also remains in question as the Bears seek solutions to pull themselves out of this latest tailspin