Chicago Bears: Why defensive head coaches can work

The Chicago Bears hiring of Matt Eberflus has been met with all of the reactions that you would expect. Some happy, some sad, some irrational, and some waiting to see more. One of the biggest talking points about the hire is that Eberflus was a defensive coordinator. The naysayers of the hire do not like that a non-offensive coach will be responsible for the development of Justin Fields.

That is certainly fair, and the offensive coordinator hire now becomes the most significant decision in the city. Still, the cut and dry idea that you cannot win with a defensive head coach are flat out wrong.

Fans will point to the fact that all of the coaches left in the playoffs this year are offensive-minded. This is short-sighted in a few ways, but the first is a very small sample. In a larger view, eight active head coaches have won a Super Bowl. Four were offensive-minded, three were defensive, and one was a special teams coordinator. So, two games this weekend say offense, Over a dozen Super Bowls over the past couple of decades say that it could go either way.

Of the past 10 Super Bowls, it is split five to five between offensive coaches and defensive, and that goes for the past 12 being six and six.

The eight winningest coaches in the NFL right now include four defensive-minded head coaches.

The reality is that when it comes to a head coach, you want a leader of men. Culture and the sustained idea that everyone is working together is the strongest thing, and it shows that it does not matter what your background is.

If you have a strong culture, you will make good hires, have good assistants, make good draft picks, and have good players. None of that is the scheme.

Pete Carroll drafted Russell Wilson in the third round and he developed just fine with a defensive head coach. Ben Roethlisberger spent his entire career without an offensive genius. Josh Allen has ridden with Sean McDermott his entire career and has gotten better every step of the way. If a quarterback is good, he is going to be good.

If a quarterback is good, you can argue it would be better to have the defense fixed, because that quarterback is going to be making up for mistakes on offense anyways.

Nobody is saying that Matt Eberflus will be a success or that defensive coaches are better. The reality is that the person, the human, the decision-maker is far more important than what side of the ball he came up coaching on. If the head coach is right, the offense and defense will be just fine.