Chicago Bears: Matt Eberflus highlights improvement over Matt Nagy

The Chicago Bears are looking to start fresh with a new General Manager and a new head coach. When the Bears hired Matt Eberflus, it made sense that he came from the defensive side of the ball. After Matt Nagy was an offensive mind, the team wanted the opposite, and they have gone back and forth the past couple of hiring cycles.

Still, during the Matt Eberflus introductory press conference, you already started to get wind of why the Bears were attracted to him as a completely different style from Matt Nagy.

It started when Eberflus said that he would not call plays. Eberflus said that while he came from the defensive side of the ball, he is now the head coach, and that means overseeing all coordinators, and not being one of his own.

"“I do believe that to be the head football coach and be efficient at that, you are exactly the head football coach,” Eberflus said. “So I can be involved in all aspects of the game. So the defensive coordinator we hire will call the defensive plays. I will not do that.”"

That is the exact opposite of Nagy, who arguably was hired because the Bears wanted his playcalling. When they realized that he could not do much more than what Andy Reid taught him, he was reluctant to give up play callings and had shown to take it personally.

The reality is that Eberflus is coming in with the exact opposite mindset from the start. Eberflus talked about “crossing the aisles” and how he wants the defense to be involved in the offense, and vice versa. That is not just him, that is the players, who he said will not meet in separate corners. Eberflus plans to have full control over the operations, where Matt Nagy was in control of the offense and let others do other things.

Chicago Bears will fit the scheme around his players

The other change is that Eberflus is not going to force his scheme on his players. Justin Fields and Andy Dalton need to run different offenses, but Matt Nagy could not adjust to what was his offense.

On the flip side, Matt Eberflus said that while his scheme is 4-3, and that is what they will transition to, nothing is set in stone as a scheme.

"“Will we have elements and pieces of a 3-4? Sure, we will adjust and move and be flexible. We will look at the talents and skills of the players we have and coach and develop those guys, and we will fit our scheme around those players”"

Again, another direct difference from Matt Nagy. He was so hard-pressed to change his ways, while Eberflus readily admits that they will run things that differ from the scheme he was brought up on. Of course, he will run his scheme, but the scheme he wants to run is to maximize talents.

Of course, this is all great talk for the offseason. When the Chicago Bears defense struggles, will he take over? Will the tune change in training camp, the next week? We will soon find out.

Either way, it is fair to say that based on the first impression, Matt Eberflus and Matt Nagy will view their head coaching experience in a different light.