Getty Bears head coach Matt Eberflus could be running out of time to save his job in Chicago.
Matt Eberflus is still the head coach of the Chicago Bears, but NBC insider Peter King believes that could change next week depending on if the Bears are victorious against the Washington Commanders on Thursday.
King jumped on 670 The Score’s ‘Parkins & Spiegel Show’ on Tuesday and weighed in on the Bears’ disastrous 0-4 start to the 2023 season following their 21-point collapse against the Denver Broncos in Week 4. The loss marked the 14th straight for the Bears under Eberflus’ leadership dating back to October 24, 2022, when they last won a game.
Fortunately, the Bears won’t have to wait long for an opportunity to get back on track with a short turnaround into Thursday Night Football against the Commanders, but if the losing continues for even another week, King “wouldn’t be surprised” if the front office decides to make a change at the top of the coaching tree with Eberflus.
“I don’t care who’s playing for you. You cannot lose 14 games in a row and think you should hold on to your job,” King said about Eberflus. “I would not be surprised if it’s a bad loss Thursday and the Bears make a change. Just wouldn’t be surprising, but I would be surprised if they totally cleaned house and went and got a new general manager as well. It just doesn’t seem, that just doesn’t seem that logical to me.”
The Bears have never fired a head coach in the middle of a regular season during their 100-plus-year history, but it is possible that could change under new team president Kevin Warren, to whom both Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles report.
“I don’t think Kevin Warren, or Ryan Poles, or the McCaskeys are going to say, ‘Well, we’ve never done this before, so we can’t do it,'” King said. “They’re going to look at their team and say, ‘Have we ever lost 14 games in a row before? I don’t think so.'”
Matt Eberflus Feels ‘Support’ From Bears’ Front Office
The hottest seat in the NFL coaching world right now belongs to Eberflus after a winless start to the 2023 season and a 3-18 record over his first 21 games at the helm, but the second-year head coach is not letting the outside noise and fervor distract him from the objective ahead of him: Beating the Commanders on Thursday Night Football.
“I’ve been doing this 32 years, right? So I understand the business,” Eberflus said Wednesday, “but I understand that to do it right you’ve got to focus on your job and you’ve got to focus right here, right now. So you can think about a lot of different things that’s going to do nobody good [or] you focus on your job where your feet are right now, and that’s my sole focus is on Washington.”
Still, it is worth wondering: Has Eberflus received any additional reassurance from Poles or other high-ranking members of the organization about his job security?
“Yeah, I feel the support.,” Eberflus added. “I haven’t talked to anybody about any of those things. I feel the support, and we’re just focused on Washington.”
Who Would Replace Matt Eberflus for Rest of 2023?
Let’s play out the scenario a bit: If the Bears lose to the Commanders in blowout fashion and decide parting ways with Eberflus is in their best interest, who exactly would the Bears tab to replace him as their interim head coach for the remainder of the season?
Traditionally, coordinators are the top candidates to replace a head coach when he is fired midseason, but the Bears might not feel confident going that route.
Luke Getsy, their offensive play-caller, has been under fire from the media and fanbase for the lackluster performance of the offense and adding responsibilities to his plate might only push things further in the wrong direction. The Bears also do not currently have a defensive coordinator after Alan Williams resigned from his post under strange circumstances a few weeks ago. That leaves just Richard Hightower, who has coached for more than a decade in the NFL but worked primarily with the special teams units.
Farther down the list, there are a few other assistants who could make (some) sense. Cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke has spent four decades as a football coach for either the college or NFL levels and is currently the team’s passing game coordinator, giving him a good sense of the current defensive system — and maybe how to adapt it for the better. If the defensive players like and trust him, he could be a seasoned leader for the team.
Quarterback Andrew Janocko is the other one; although, he likely would not be viewed as a candidate for the interim head coaching job. Instead, the Bears might see him as an ideal replacement for Getsy on the play-calling side of things in the event that they bump up Getsy and want him to focus more on the wide range of head coaching duties.
The options are not sparkling, but the Bears might have no choice but to roll with one of them — at least in the interim — if Thursday validates that Eberflus is not the right guy.