Bear Digest

Moment of Truth Arriving for Bears from Players to Coaches

Analysis: The rebuild begun by Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus in 2022 has reached a stage where there must be consequences for failure, even with a rookie quarterback playing.

Gene Chamberlain

Matt Eberflus keeps the Bears focused through their pre-practice routine at minicamp. It's the third year of their rebuild and time to win.
Matt Eberflus keeps the Bears focused through their pre-practice routine at minicamp. It's the third year of their rebuild and time to win. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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Matt Eberflus has shown great ability to assemble a defense and courage enough to address the quarterback position even when many thought they had their answer in Justin Fields.

What Eberflus apparently doesn't understand is how to take pressure off of himself, which in and of itself is refreshing.

As the Bears coach looked ahead to a summer break before early training camp, he answered a general question about where the team stands in relation to where it needs to be.

“Every team is different," Eberflus said. "We all know that.

"The roster has changed significantly. The players that we've drafted, we've drafted well, and we've developed players through time on task, through experience and exposure. You can name a bunch of guys that have had that and are really raising their game, and they have to do that again. Players that are in their second year have to be better in their third, and so forth and so on."

No Hedging Even with Rookie QB

A coach hedging, one holding back and trying to temper enthusiasm could point out how they need to see more yet, or that quarterback Caleb Williams is a mere rookie, or give any number of other reasons why everyone should be on the safe side with expectations.

Eberflus could have pointed to his roster and said they have 16 starters who were not in the starting lineup just two years ago when his coaching regime began with that win in the rain and slop over San Francisco.

The safe play was mentioning this and saying with all the change in such a short period comes the need to play together more and become competitive. Instead, Eberflus put himself and GM Ryan Poles right in a place where expectations will only be higher.

"The roster is different," Eberflus said. "We're in a different spot, in terms of all the way from the top. Ryan and I are in a different spot.

"We know what we're looking for, we know how we're doing it. We've had the experiences together of building this roster together, building this football team. It's in a different spot for sure."

Talk about doubling down.

And Eberflus even expects his coaching staff to be sharper come training camp. For one, there are fewer roster/starting battles to ponder than at last year's camp and definitely than at camp in Year 1. They'll be able to more closely focus their energies on those few open spots.

"I think you can really hone in on the battles, because I know when you're starting out and (when) you're rebuilding there are a lot of things that are open and you can really hone in on what spots are," Eberflus said. "This is really a competition spot with this particular player and that particular player, and that we still have a few spots there.

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"Of course, the roster is never perfect. It's never finalized, but we'll be looking at that as we go."

Fed Up with Losing

When Poles and team president Kevin Warren announced they Eberflus was back and the offensive staff had changed after last season, their coach appeared firmly in the hot seat for Year 3.

Now, Eberflus sounds like someone who knows he has talent and expects success himself.

After two years of losing or finding ways to lose when they should have won, it's refreshing to hear the coach saying there are reasons to know they should win. It's what players want to hear, as well.

"I know one thing that hasn't left my mind is the amount of wins that we have," All-Pro cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "For me, that's what I'm focused on, is winning.

"I'm not going to say under this regime, but since I've been in the building, we haven't had, to me, a winning season yet."

He came to the Bears in 2020, and even when they made the playoffs his rookie year they were only a .500 team.

"That's the biggest step for me just to try to get as many wins as possible this year," Johnson said. "Trying to get 10 wins, trying to get to the playoffs, just some things that I feel like this building hasn't had, for me, since I've been here."

It's apparent they're all in on this being the season of transition from losing or mediocrity to winning, from the players right up to the head coach.

Bold talk of this sort is easy at this time of year. The seat gets much hotter as the season approaches and especially when the verdicts come in week by week.

With one of the easiest schedules in the NFL and a team seemingly talented enough, there's no doubt who will be sitting in that seat should these expectations not be met.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.