With two games to go, it feels like Matt Eberflus has his job hanging in the balance every week. As the Chicago Bears have a chance to finish with seven and potentially eight wins, there is momentum toward Eberflus sticking around as the coach next year. What is the biggest case for him staying?
3. The Chicago Bears have already doubled their win total
When Matt Eberflus was hired, pretty much every Chicago Bears fan knew that it would probably be a long-term hire. The roster was in a bad spot, and things were not going to get fixed in one offseason. Eberflus was in a bad spot last year and finished with three wins.
Still, the roster turned around this year, and so did the record. Yes, the Chicago Bears did not finish over .500, and they are very unlikely to make the playoffs. However, going from three to six, seven, and maybe eight wins is a massive turnaround in the NFL.
When you hear that a coach took a roster that was bottomed out, and then in the second season, he doubled their win total, you do not think of a coach who is going to get fired or a coach who is on the hot seat. You would think that this is a coach showing signs of progress.
His timeline was never expected to win this year, and it was all about growth. Some fans think there could have been more growth, and they have blown tight games, but this is still a team trending up at the right time, thanks to Matt Eberflus.
2. The Chicago Bears' run defense completely turned it around
This goes back to what Matt Eberflus inherited. When the Chicago Bears fired Matt Nagy, he was just shifting his defense. The Vic Fangio had more of an odd front look, and Chuck Pagano tried to move them to an even look before getting replaced. Sean Desai moved them back to the Fangio ways, but Eberflus was more similar to Pagno in his defensive front. Needless to say, the Bears went three years with the wrong personnel upfront.
They still have work to do to fix the personnel, but the mentality of play is there. They went from, hands down, the worst run defense in the NFL to one of the five best in the NFL. That is a massive turnaround.
Yes, it is not the offensive explosion that fans wanted, but this shows that he can focus on one unit and improve it over the course of a season. Now that the run defense has the players and technique that is required, the focus can go to other places, and we can see growth there.
It is hard to fire a coach when things are not completely falling apart. Going from a miserable defense to a good defense is one season usually does not warrant a firing.
1. The Chicago Bears are still fighting for their head coach
The Chicago Bears started 0-4, and there was a real chance things were going to fall apart. They easily could have, especially after a blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was followed up by a collapse against the Denver Broncos.
The Bears could have quit there, but they went 6-5 since then and 4-2 in their last six games. If they win out the rest of the season, they could get to 6-2 in their final eight games. That is pretty significant.
The Bears had to fire their defensive coordinator early into the season, and they lost their running backs coach. Eberflus kept things going in the right direction. They had crushing losses to the Broncos, Lions, and Browns that could have tanked their season, but they won the game after those losses every time.
The team is learning how to win and respond to adversity. We saw on Thursday night football a few weeks ago what it looks like when a defensive coach does not have buy-in from his team. Brandon Staley and the Chargers gave up 63 points to the Aidan O’Connell-led Raiders. That has never been this team. Eberflus has not proven to be a great, or potentially even good, coach. However, he has not proven to be a bad coach, so it may be tough for the Chicago Bears to justify firing him.