The Chicago Bears’ decision to remove head coach Matt Eberflus after his historic error against the Detroit Lions in Week 13 marked the final end of the Eberflus era. Additionally, Eberflus is the first head coach of the Bears to be fired during the season. The final straw was Eberflus’s game-ending error on Thursday, when the now-former Bears head coach failed to call a timeout close to the end of regulation, ruining his team’s hopes of potentially forcing OT with a field goal. Eberflus’ sacking was long overdue.
Thomas Brown will lead the Bears for the remainder of the season. After Shane Waldron was fired, Brown, who had been hired as the team’s passing-game coordinator, was promoted to temporary offensive coordinator. He has now been promoted once more to interim head coach by Chicago. The name of Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator for the Lions, is frequently mentioned as a possible contender for the Bears’ 2025 head coaching opening, which makes sense considering how highly sought-after he is expected to be. According to one NFL analyst, Vinnie Iyer of Sporting News, Johnson is one of the top prospects the Bears could take into consideration.
The possibility to work with Williams and remain in the division could be the deciding factor in addition to compensation for the ace play-caller, who is searching for the proper opportunity,” Iyer wrote of Johnson. Given that the Bears have a young quarterback with promise and a strong supporting cast, it would be difficult to see Johnson go for a division foe, but it is not absurd to think about it. But given what ESPN’s Adam Schefter stated earlier this month, there’s reason to think Johnson won’t be interested in the position. Johnson will be “very careful” about where he goes, he said, adding that the dysfunctional past in Chicago might discourage him from accepting the position.
In the event that Ben Johnson leaves Detroit at all, he will be quite picky about where he goes. “He will exercise extreme caution,” he stated on Get Up. “I don’t know that Ben Johnson desires to leave and head into the division to go to a place where you’re talking about the dysfunction that has existed within that organisation.” Eberflus was permitted to hold his press conference the day following his dismissal, which is the most recent instance of the Bears’ dysfunction. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network offered his perspective on how that transpired.
According to what I hear, when Eberflus’ regularly planned news conference began, George McCaskey, Kevin Warren, and Ryan Poles had just started a multi-hour meeting,” he said. “A postponement would have indicated a change that wasn’t yet decided. The press conference had already ended by the time the decision was made, and Eberflus was notified.
In any event, the Bears received a lot of criticism for the way the firing process unfolded, and it doesn’t look well for prospective head coaches who could be considering the Bears’ opening next season. Given how things transpired with Eberflus, Johnson might have just taken the Bears off his list, if Schefter’s observations are correct.