The season of the Chicago Bears may be essentially split into two opposing halves: “After Sweat” and “Before (Montez) Sweat,” or BS and AS, depending on how the team was performing.
The defense appears to be what Ryan Poles, the general manager, has actually been picturing ever since Montez Sweat arrived at this year’s trade deadline.
Since then, not only has head coach Matt Eberflus’ defense improved statistically—allowing fewer than 18 points per game, down from a staggering 27.3 prior to Sweat’s arrival—but they have also won four out of five games. The Chicago Bears received a second-round pick in exchange for Sweat.
Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune reports that a league source believes the Bears need a semi-do-over and that the time is right—the team will choose first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft—to fire head coach Matt Eberflus and quarterback Justin Fields:
There is talk in league circles that [Bears General Manager Ryan] Poles will have a much harder time making the case for keeping Eberflus beyond next month than for firing him. It’s also widely believed that the squad is in a perfect position to justify a coaching change based only on external factors.
Let’s be honest, according to a league source. Considering the Bears’ past, I believe it is critical that they begin 2024 with a quarterback who can successfully develop. Is anyone among them? And how could you, as the general manager there, pass up the unique chance to accomplish both at once? You select the top quarterback available in the draft class and pair him with one of the top candidates for offensive head coach at this time.
The general consensus within the league is that a quarterback with no history would make the Bears job—which, incidentally, may be one of up to ten coaching openings in the league by wild-card weekend—much more appealing. It is possible that prospective candidates would be far more eager to tie the knot with a rookie than to take on Fields’ pressing developmental task, especially since there is no guarantee that a potential reset would provide nearly the same selections for the organization as the current draft cycle.
In fact, the Bears will have a rare chance to select a large number of young players in the first round of the upcoming draft. Thanks to their deal with the Carolina Panthers last season, they were virtually guaranteed the #1 overall pick, two of the top five picks, and six draft selections in the first five rounds.
With “can’t miss” stud quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Drake Maye up for grabs, there’s a loud call to take one—but only if the team has finally decided to move on from Fields. and, maybe more importantly, if the team has also decided to move on from Eberflus.
Fields, a 24-year-old 3-year veteran, has shown brief flashes of brilliance in his run as Bears starting QB, but he’s also shown glaring inconsistencies and a frustrating tendency to make critical flubs late in games. Not to be forgotten is his total 7-26 record in his starting role.
Fields has a lot of positive qualities, but the Bears need to determine if he is growing and learning enough to be THE man for the foreseeable future. They have to decide if it’s in the team’s best interest to start over with a new quarterback, pairing him and his development with a new head coach (Jim Harbaugh?), better equipped than Eberflus to guide the growth of a young field general.
Notwithstanding a spectacular final five-game run from Fields, the future of the quarterback position in Chicago may be tied to the future of the team’s head coach. Fields might be the next to go if Eberflus is fired.
The Bears, with a 4-8 current record and a 7-22 record overall under Eberflus, have, almost literally, nothing to lose from rolling the dice on a change.