It doesn’t take a thermometer to find the hottest seat at Halas Hall.
General manager Ryan Poles? When the Panthers lost again Sunday, he was guaranteed one of the great trade hauls in recent NFL history: the 2023 No. 1 overall pick for the No. 1 2024 pick, star receiver DJ Moore, right tackle Darnell Wright, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson — they moved up to take the reigning NFC Defensive Player of the Week — and a 2025 second-rounder. Defensive end Montez Sweat, for whom he traded on Halloween, made his first career Pro Bowl on Wednesday.
Coach Matt Eberflus? His defense has allowed the lowest passer rating and the second-fewest points in the NFL since Week 7. He’s won five times in his last seven games after winning five times in the first 26.
Quarterback Justin Fields? He’s coming off the best start of his career. More importantly, though, is what the Bears would gain by bringing him back in 2024: a haul of draft picks and players in a trade for the No.1 pick.
That leaves offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who has engineered an offense that ranks 27th in the NFL in passing yards and 25th in both passer rating and yards per pass this season. In his two years at the helm — the first was a total Bears rebuild — Getsy’s offense ranks last in both passing yards and completions.
The Bears’ lead the league in rushing yards during the past two years, but their passing numbers should give Getsy’s higher-ups pause. If the Bears decide to draft USC’s Caleb Williams No. 1 overall, should they be comfortable with Getsy being the one to mold him?
If they bring Fields back, why would a 2024 pairing with Getsy be any more fruitful than it’s been this season? And why did it take until the penultimate week of their second season together for Fields to put together the complete game — he threw for 268 yards and ran for 45 in a 37-17 win against the Falcons — that all of Chicago had wanted for years?
Would the Bears really just run it back next year?
Getsy avoided those big-picture questions Thursday, saying he was more focused on facing the Packers — for whom he worked from 2014-17 and 2019-21, with the second stint coming as Aaron Rodgers’ quarterback coach. Instead, he said that Fields’ mentality “inspires me daily.”
Getsy said he and Fields “have a great relationship” and “work really well together.” Even that, though, comes with a complication. In Week 3, Fields pointed to Bears coaches when trying to explain why he was, in his own words, playing so “robotic.” He blamed the media later that day and, on the next day, made it a point to hug Getsy in front of cameras at practice.
Working well together isn’t an argument to stay together. Neither is the Getsy’s well-publicized struggles on short-yardage downs that contributed to fall-from-ahead losses to the Broncos, Lions and Browns this year. Win two of those three games, and the Bears would be 9-7 and dreaming of the postseason. Instead, the Bears are trying to play spoiler in their rivalry game.
When Eberflus hired Getsy two years ago, it was because he came from an offensive system that Eberflus found the most difficult to defend. Coaching Rodgers helped make Getsy was a hotshot assistant at the time — he interviewed for the Broncos head coaching job before he’d ever called an NFL play. After two years in Chicago, though, Getsy and the Bears’ passing attack remain stuck in the muck. In an NFLPA player poll, he wasn’t listed among the top five offensive coordinators.
Getsy said Thursday that Fields “future is super-bright.” We’ll find out next week, one week or the other, if Getsy is a part of it.
