Virginia McCaskey, the matriarch of the household that owns the Chicago Bears, is 100 years outdated. A typical 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 large homeowners’ field within the sky. I’ve little question that’s the case, however the group 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 repeatedly 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 group beneath a shroud of secrecy — we nonetheless don’t have solutions — amidst rumors (that have been by no means confirmed) that his house and Halas Corridor have 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 legal conduct was concerned. Over a month later, we nonetheless don’t know why Williams vacated his job so rapidly, besides that the proffered clarification — Williams’ have to handle his well being and his household — was not all the story.
Now, yet one more Bears coach is now not with the group, and we don’t have any sort of first rate clarification for his departure, both. Earlier this week, the group fired working backs coach Dave Walker, with the media studying solely that it needed to do with Walker’s “conduct within the office,” and that the HR division at Halas Corridor was concerned within the resolution.
Eberflus instructed the media of Walker’s firing, “As the top coach, we’re constructing a program and have requirements to uphold to as a employees and group each on and off the sector, and people requirements weren’t met… We’ve got a normal to uphold to. When that normal will not be met, we act. We act accordingly, and that’s what we did as we speak.”
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 sector, has a very exhausting time evaluating the folks he’s employed for his teaching employees. He’s now had two of the extra well-known members of his employees go away for mysterious causes that appear to contain their conduct, with little-to-no additional clarification to followers. It’s troublesome to see how that doesn’t name into query Eberflus’ capacity to run a employees that may be profitable on and off the sector. And the way in which the Bears’ PR employees has dealt with each the departure of Williams and Walker — giving the general public simply sufficient data 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 lately traded for defensive finish Montez Sweat, who’s an unrestricted free agent after this season, and allowed one of many few vivid spots on the group, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, to hunt a commerce earlier than Tuesday’s commerce deadline. If the Bears suppose they will lock up Sweat on a multi-year deal, tremendous. If not, the group 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 group has come to phrases with not being excellent for the subsequent few years, but when that’s the case, why herald Montez Sweat?
Very like the Bears on the sector to date this 12 months, all the 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 one of the best ways to utilize it. It actually doesn’t really feel just like the group has one of the best head coach in place, and it more and more appears that his chosen teaching employees is in chaos. Maybe that’s not the truth behind closed doorways, nevertheless it’s the one the group 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 folks for the job? He actually 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 realize, remaining with the group.
I might like to be mistaken about all of this. Possibly 2023 is the season earlier than the Bears get it collectively and make an honest-to-goodness Tremendous Bowl run. However that situation is troublesome to see from right here. And so is Virginia McCaskey attending to have fun one other Tremendous Bowl.
