Bears fire coach Matt Eberflus after 6 straight losses, clock management criticism

By Dianna Russini, Jeff Howe, Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain

The Chicago Bears fired Matt Eberflus on Friday, making an in-season coaching change for the first time in franchise history less than 24 hours after a three-point loss to the Detroit Lions in which Eberflus was widely criticized for his clock management.

The loss dropped the Bears to 4-8 on the season and 14-32 in Eberflus’ two-plus seasons in Chicago. He was 5-19 in one-score games and 2-13 in the NFC North.

Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will serve as the interim head coach.

“We understand how imperative the head coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization,” Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said in a statement. “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.”

News of the firing broke less than three hours after Eberflus held his day-after-game news conference Friday. At that time, Eberflus said he was “confident” he would be leading the Bears into next week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. He added he had a typical postgame meeting with Warren and general manager Ryan Poles, and was going to meet with them again Friday.

He also addressed Chicago’s end-of-game clock management Thursday, when the Bears ran just one play in the final 32 seconds despite having a timeout remaining as they attempted to tie or win the game, saying “the operation wasn’t fast enough” on the final play.

Eberflus is the fourth head coach to be let go by the Bears in the past 11 seasons.  A defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts and former linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys, Eberflus took the Bears’ job in 2022 after Matt Nagy was fired. He brought his “HITS” philosophy to Halas Hall — hustle, intensity, take the ball away and play smart.

In his final season as head coach, his basic tenets weren’t reflected on the field, especially during a six-game losing streak that began when the Bears lost on a Hail Mary against the Washington Commanders in Week 8.

That moment — when cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was talking and gesturing toward fans while the play began and then tipped the ball into Commanders receiver Noah Brown’s hands — seemed to break the team. Stevenson’s job was to cover Brown.

After the game, Eberflus received criticism inside and outside the building for allowing a 12-yard pass before the Hail Mary, not calling a timeout before the game-winning play and not taking accountability for those errors. He defended offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s decision earlier in the game to hand the ball off to backup center Doug Kramer at the goal line. Kramer fumbled.

That night against the Commanders was the beginning of the end for Eberflus. He fired Waldron 16 days later and after two more frustrating losses. Waldron’s offense floundered against the New England Patriots, who had one of the worst defenses in the league, in a 19-3 loss.

During his Bears tenure, Eberflus went through three play callers, firing Luke Getsy after the 2023 season and then letting Waldron go after only nine games this season.

The red flags that showed up earlier in the season on offense with Waldron transformed into real concerns that needed to be addressed internally and beyond meetings with the team’s leadership. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ development looked in trouble — and nothing mattered more this season. The Bears promoted Brown to offensive coordinator. An instant spark followed. Williams and other offensive players, especially the veterans, bought into Brown.

But while the offense improved with Brown’s play calling, the Bears’ once-proud defense regressed under Eberflus this season. He was an offshoot of the Lovie Smith/Rod Marinelli tree of defensive coaching. But his HITS philosophy failed to produce a winning record.

Chairman George McCaskey, Warren and Poles had an opportunity to line up the selection of Williams with a new coach but chose to stick with Eberflus. He had impressed them with how he “steadied the ship,” per Poles, during a losing streak and multiple coach removals in 2023. Eberflus’ defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned and the team fired running backs coach David Walker. Both decisions involved the human resources department.

This season began with higher expectations than the Bears had seen since 2019. With No. 1 pick Williams in the fold, along with the team’s best trio of receivers in more than a decade and a talented defense, there was more attention on Chicago. That increased with HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which put Eberflus in the national spotlight.

A dominant victory in London over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team’s third win in a row, seemed to set the Bears on the right path. They were 4-2, and a fourth-quarter comeback in Washington in Week 8 put them in position to go 5-2. Then the Hail Mary happened.

McCaskey took over as team chairman in 2011. The team has fired Smith, Marc Trestman, John Fox, Nagy and now Eberflus during that time. They have not won a playoff game and have had at least a five-game losing streak in four of the past five seasons.

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(Photo: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)