Striking the right balance between patience and urgency is one of the biggest challenges for an NFL coach or general manager, and that’s even harder here, where the Bears have been asking everyone to just hold on a little longer for most of the last four decades.
Matt Eberflus is a man of patience, evidenced by working 30 years as an assistant while he waited for this head-coaching opportunity, but the NFL is a world of high pressure and fast flips. Four teams that were near the bottom of the league last season now are .500 or better and in reach of a playoff spot.
The Bears went into the season thinking they’d be a turnaround team like that after significant roster upgrades, but they started 0-4 and slipped to 2-7 by midseason. He said Wednesday it requires “extreme patience” in an endeavor that began with nearly a full burndown of the roster upon Poles’ arrival, but there’s no way anyone at Halas Hall thought it’d plod like this.
“The wins, that’s the biggest frustration: When are you going to get the wins?” Eberflus said. “You keep doing things right, then all of a sudden the wins will come. That’s what all of my mentors would tell me.
“Just keep doing it right and really focus on the fundamentals and details. Hold guys to standards — don’t let that slip. That’s what we’ve tried to do. It’s been slow, and I know the Chicago Bears fans, as we do, want more wins. You can certainly see that momentum starting to change, and we’re certainly optimistic for that.”
The word “certainly” is a bit strong for a team that recently celebrated a last-minute 12-10 victory over the aimless Vikings. Some elements look better than they did at the start of the season, but the Bears have given little proof they’re headed the right way.
The Lions, a longtime laughingstock, were a three-win team in 2021, then spiked to 9-8 last season and are running away with the division as they visit the Bears on Sunday. They’re measuring movement in miles, not millimeters.
Eberflus didn’t give specifics when pressed for parts of the rebuild that he believed have lagged too much, but they’re easily identifiable.
While the acquisition of pass rusher Montez Sweat sparked the defense to morph into something closer to what Eberflus promised to deliver, the offense has continued to meander. While Eberflus is a defensive-minded coach, he hired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and is just as responsible for that side of the ball as he is anything else.
The Bears are 21st in scoring, and quarterback Justin Fields hasn’t made major strides as a passer. They run well, but can’t do much else consistently. They almost lost last week on a night when their defense got four takeaways and held the opponent to 10 points.
So, 29 games into their partnership, how patient can Eberflus afford to be with Getsy?
“The sense of urgency is always there,” Eberflus said. “It’s about being optimistic, being positive, but also being real... You have to make that improvement.”
Being able to manage that situation — at minimum by interjecting with necessary changes — is a crucial ability that separates good coordinators from good head coaches. Eberflus calling the defense more effectively is unsurprising. Lots of coordinators do well in their area of expertise. But elevating the offense down the stretch would help Eberflus as his bosses weigh his future. They might not be so patient.
