The Chicago Bears present Ryan (Poles) and Matt (Eberflus) 2.0
It is official. The Chicago Bears were the second team to announce their next head coach. With vacancies still in New York (Giants), Miami, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Houston, Las Vegas and New Orleans, one would have thought the new general manager Ryan Poles would have taken his time before making a decision on the next head coach. Apparently, that is not the case as the Bears officially announced Matt Eberflus as their next head coach.
The Denver Broncos announced the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett as their next head coach. Is this a sign that the team is going to go after Aaron Rodgers this offseason? Will the Packers trade the future Hall of Fame quarterback who once again was not able to help his team reach a Super Bowl? Time will tell, but the Hackett connection is obviously a nice one. It might be time for the Jordan Love era in Green Bay.
The Chicago Bears and Ryan Poles hire Matt Eberflus as the next head coach
In Chicago, it is all about Justin Fields and this is why I am not too excited about Ryan Poles bringing in a defensive-minded head coach in Matt Eberflus. This is not a knock on Eberflus, but I will continue to point out that in the playoffs this year, only four teams had defensive-minded coaches. Last year, only five teams had defensive-minded coaches. Who is going to help groom Justin Fields into the next great quarterback of the NFL? Who is going to build the offense?
I predicted weeks ago that the Chicago Bears would go with a defensive coach — against my wishes. I am on record that this hiring will lead to another four years of mediocrity for our beloved Bears, but I’ll hold out full judgment until we see who the next offensive coordinator will be of this team. I’ll see how my workday goes on if I can dive into some of the connections Matt Eberflus may have throughout the league. The top name that comes to mind right now is the Indianapolis Colts quarterbacks coach Scott Milanovich.
Matt Eberflus is 51 years old and has been a coach for 30 years. He has been the Colts defensive coordinator for the last four years. Prior to that, he was the linebackers coach of the Dallas Cowboys from 2011 to 2017. He spent two years with Cleveland in the same position prior to that. That is 13 years in the NFL. His prior coaching experience came in the collegiate ranks at Toledo and Missouri. He has been highly regarded as someone who pays close attention to details and like Lovie Smith, he preaches for players to swarm the football.
Will Matt Eberflus bring any of the offensive-minded coaches from the Colts? Mike Groh is the Colts wide receivers coach, but he used to be in Chicago as the wide receivers coach from 2013 to 2015. He was the offensive coordinator of the Eagles from 2018 to 2019. We will dig into more on that later. For now, just enjoy Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus — Ryan and Matt 2.0.