(670 The Score) With a once-promising season in a tailspin due to an ongoing six-game losing streak, the Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Friday, the team announced. He was 14-32 over three seasons in Chicago.
The Bears have named offensive coordinator Thomas Brown as their interim head coach for the final five games of the regular season. After carrying playoff hopes into the 2024 season, the Eberflus-led Bears started 4-2 before enduring a downward spiral to 4-8 that included a 23-20 loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. The Bears made their decision after general manager Ryan Poles had a meeting with president Kevin Warren and chairman George McCaskey.
“This morning, after meeting with George and Kevin, we informed Matt of our decision to move in a different direction with the leadership of our football team and the head coaching position,” Poles said in a statement. “I thank Matt for his hard work, professionalism and dedication to our organization. We extend our gratitude for his commitment to the Chicago Bears and wish him and his family the best moving forward."
In the final game of his Bears tenure Thursday, Eberflus' trademark mismanagement of end-of-game situations was on display for a national television audience. After quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked at the Lions' 41-yard line with 32 seconds left, Eberflus refused to call the Bears' final timeout. Instead, he let the clock roll, and the disorganized Bears could only get one more play off, an incompletion on third down as time expired. They never got a look at a game-tying field-goal attempt.
The Bears’ firing of Eberflus marks the first time the franchise has ever dismissed a head coach during the middle of a season.
"I support Ryan and the decision that was made this morning," Warren said in a statement. "We understand how imperative the head coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization. Our fans have stood by us and persevered through every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future."
The Bears hired Eberflus in January 2022. Poles tasked him with guiding the team through a full rebuild, but the organization failed to achieve the breakthrough it sought during his tenure. Eberflus led the team through a difficult year in his first season in 2022, with Chicago finishing an NFL-worst 3-14 while landing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Bears started 0-4 in 2023 but responded with victories in seven of their final 13 games. Eberflus was retained following that 7-10 campaign, with Poles and Warren praising his leadership in helping to salvage the season.
After the Bears made a series of high-profile acquisitions in the offseason, Eberflus faced heightened expectations entering this 2024 season. The defensive-minded Eberflus was also tasked with helping guide the development of Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft in April.
Williams was named Chicago’s starting quarterback shortly after he was drafted, but Eberflus and the Bears failed to deliver on their promise of implementing structure around him.
On Nov. 12, the Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron after just nine games on the job. After being the passing game coordinator, Brown was promoted to offensive coordinator to replace Waldron, who had been hired to replace former offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who was fired by the Bears in January.
It all added up to Eberflus working with his third offensive coordinator in less than three full seasons on the job.
“I take full accountability for that,” Eberflus said then.
Turnover among his staff was a constant during Eberflus’ tenure. Since September 2023, eight assistants on Eberflus’ staff departed the organization, for varying reasons. In September 2023, then-defensive defensive coordinator Alan Williams abruptly resigned due to inappropriate personal conduct. Two months later, running backs coach David Walker was fired for inappropriate conduct. At the end of the 2023 season, Getsy and four other members of the offensive coaching staff were fired for performance reasons.
Despite the previous turmoil and a poor start offensively to this season, the Bears sat at 4-2 following a 35-16 win over the Jaguars on Oct. 13 in London. They seemed to be on the cusp of the breakthrough they imagined, but it all came crashing down soon.
On Oct. 27, the Bears suffered a stunning 18-15 loss to the Commanders when Washington completed a 52-yard game-winning Hail Mary touchdown pass at the buzzer. On the decisive play, Bears second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson bizarrely didn’t pay attention to the snap of the ball as he instead interacted with the crowd at Northwest Stadium. After being out of position to start the sequence, Stevenson recovered by sprinting to the scrum where the heave descended, but he deflected the ball into the hands of Commanders receiver Noah Brown, who was standing all alone in the end zone for the winning score. Covering Brown was Stevenson’s responsibility on the play.
Stevenson didn’t start the ensuing game, but he did play. Beyond that, it remained unclear how Eberflus and the Bears disciplined him. Eberflus’ handling of the entire situation drew scrutiny.
Making the Bears’ loss to the Commanders worse for Eberflus was his coaching decision on the penultimate play of the game. With the Commanders sitting 65 yards from the end zone and six seconds remaining, Eberflus instructed his secondary to play well off the line of scrimmage and conceded an easy 13-yard completion. That allowed Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels the opportunity to get his Hail Mary heave to the goal line on the final play. Had the Bears successfully defended those 13 yards, Daniels’ heave likely wouldn’t have made it to the end zone.
The Bears’ season went into a tailspin after that, with their six straight losses ending their playoff hopes. That marked the third straight season in Eberflus’ tenure in which the Bears had suffered a losing streak of at least four games. Eberflus' game management was also called into question at the end of the Bears' 20-19 loss to the Packers on Nov. 17 and then again in the setback to the Lions on Thursday.
Another indictment of Eberflus was the Bears' defensive regression, as he called plays on that side of the ball. Ahead of the season, the Bears openly proclaimed their goal was to be a top-five defense, and they played well in the first seven games. The Bears' defensive performance declined from there, with the unit sometimes turning into a concern instead of a reason that Chicago expected to win games. As of Friday morning, the Bears ranked ninth in the NFL in scoring defense and 19th in total defense.
Amid the losing streak, Bears players also questioned the decision-making of Eberflus and his staff members. Suddenly, the primary reasons he was retained following the 2023 season were the primary factors in why he was dismissed Friday.
The Bears will now search for their fifth head coach since firing Lovie Smith following the 2012 season. Eberflus’ .304 winning percentage is the third-worst mark in Bears history, sitting above only John Fox (.292) and Abe Gibron (.274).
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.