Virginia McCaskey, the matriarch of the household that owns the Chicago Bears, is 100 years outdated. A standard chorus from the household during the last decade has been that they need to win a Tremendous Bowl once more earlier than Virginia goes on to the massive house owners’ field within the sky. I’ve little doubt that’s the case, however the crew has been going about it in a weird method — one which hasn’t seen the Bears go previous the primary spherical of the playoffs since 2010, and commonly options them ending within the backside half of the NFC North. This season, the Bears and head coach Matt Eberflus are off to a 2-6 begin — not precisely a path to Tremendous Bowl glory.
Again in September, then-Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams left the crew underneath a shroud of secrecy — we nonetheless don’t have solutions — amidst rumors (that had been by no means confirmed) that his house and Halas Corridor had been raided by the FBI, together with former-Bear-turned-special-agent Charles “Peanut” Tillman. The Bears denied that Halas Corridor had been raided and Williams’ lawyer would solely say that no felony conduct was concerned. Over a month later, we nonetheless don’t know why Williams vacated his job so rapidly, besides that the proffered rationalization — Williams’ have to deal with his well being and his household — was not the complete story.
Now, yet one more Bears coach is now not with the crew, and we don’t have any sort of respectable rationalization for his departure, both. Earlier this week, the crew fired operating backs coach Dave Walker, with the media studying solely that it needed to do with Walker’s “habits within the office,” and that the HR division at Halas Corridor was concerned within the determination.
Eberflus advised the media of Walker’s firing, “As the pinnacle coach, we’re constructing a program and have requirements to uphold to as a workers and group each on and off the sphere, and people requirements weren’t met… We now have a normal to uphold to. When that customary isn’t met, we act. We act accordingly, and that’s what we did at present.”
Eberflus went on to inform the media that the tradition within the Bears’ group is “superior.”
From right here, although, it doesn’t look all that superior. Extra to the purpose, it appears to be like like Matt Eberflus, along with struggling to get wins on the sphere, has a very onerous time evaluating the individuals he’s employed for his teaching workers. He’s now had two of the extra well-known members of his workers depart for mysterious causes that appear to contain their conduct, with little-to-no additional rationalization to followers. It’s tough to see how that doesn’t name into query Eberflus’ capacity to run a workers that may be profitable on and off the sphere. And the best way the Bears’ PR workers has dealt with each the departure of Williams and Walker — giving the general public simply sufficient information to permit rumor and hypothesis to run rife — makes one marvel what the hell is occurring contained in the group.
That’s earlier than we even get to GM Ryan Poles, who not too long ago traded for defensive finish Montez Sweat, who’s an unrestricted free agent after this season, and allowed one of many few brilliant spots on the crew, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, to hunt a commerce earlier than Tuesday’s commerce deadline. If the Bears suppose they’ll lock up Sweat on a multi-year deal, tremendous. If not, the crew gave up a second-round choose for 9 weeks of Sweat with such a slim likelihood of constructing the playoffs. As for Jaylon Johnson, permitting him to see what his choices are is nice if the crew has come to phrases with not being excellent for the following few years, but when that’s the case, why usher in Montez Sweat?
Very like the Bears on the sphere to date this yr, the complete group appears to lack a cohesive plan and any coherent path. And whereas the Bears are projected to have $110 million in cap house in 2024, it doesn’t really feel like there’s any actual plan for the easiest way to utilize it. It definitely doesn’t really feel just like the crew has one of the best head coach in place, and it more and more appears that his chosen teaching workers is in chaos. Maybe that’s not the truth behind closed doorways, nevertheless it’s the one the crew is projecting to the remainder of the league and to most people. What free agent goes to need to play for Matt Eberflus? And is Eberflus even able to selecting one of the best individuals for the job? He definitely was not when it got here to Williams and Walker, as a result of an enormous a part of being an efficient coach is, you understand, remaining with the crew.
I might like to be fallacious about all of this. Perhaps 2023 is the season earlier than the Bears get it collectively and make an honest-to-goodness Tremendous Bowl run. However that state of affairs is tough to see from right here. And so is Virginia McCaskey attending to have fun one other Tremendous Bowl.
