Bears 8.0: Matt Eberflus FIRED

[nitetrain8603]

If anybody noticed, the Raiders showed another unusual way to screw up a potential last second FG attempt. Can't say I'd ever seen that one before.

Some D-linemen on display today.... 11:00 am Michigan (Graham and Grant), Ohio St (Williams), Tenn (Pearce), 2:30 pm Penn St (Carter) and 7:30 pm Texas A&M (Scourton)

Don't want a lineman. Want all OL as that presents your biggest ROI

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safeties and inside linebackers do

S and IL would represent bigger ROIs for this team than OLine? I strongly disagree. Could they use more depth at either position? Yeah probably. But they are not anywhere near the top 3 problems on this team.

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[Dresden]

How about MI today? A 23 point dog and they won. I thought they threw it away when their QB made a boneheaded play at the goaline, but they came right back and scored. I have never liked THE Ohio State ever since that maniac Woody Hayes was coaching them.

[nitetrain8603]

^^^Poles chose Flus out of the 3 choices. (Silvy says btw that at least 2 people on that search committee wanted Quinn). And Poles doubled down this offseason by retaining Eberflus, while we all knew Flus didn’t have the bones for the job. To try and shield Poles from his body of work, not for me. People are accountable. That’s healthy.

That’s all well and good, but we have to acknowledge that it’s a screwed-up process in the first place to have a search committee that has already interviewed the candidates before the GM is hired and then give him handcuffs by saying “you have to pick one of these three.”

do we know he wasn't permitted to bring in other candidates? who else would have been good?

in theory it's good to get the process started ASAP, but of course that can create an awkward situation if the new GM doesn't like the work that has been done or wanted to handle it all himself

He was. The Bears had told the candidates that they were the finalists but also wanted to get their GM onboard first so they "could make the hire"

TBH I don't think Poles would've picked any of those three finalists had they not already been interviewed.

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[dice]

Don't want a lineman. Want all OL as that presents your biggest ROI

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safeties and inside linebackers do

S and IL would represent bigger ROIs for this team than OLine? I strongly disagree. Could they use more depth at either position? Yeah probably. But they are not anywhere near the top 3 problems on this team.

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not necessarily on this team. depends what plans are w/ brisker and stevenson, though. and byard beyond next season is dicey

[dice]

That’s all well and good, but we have to acknowledge that it’s a screwed-up process in the first place to have a search committee that has already interviewed the candidates before the GM is hired and then give him handcuffs by saying “you have to pick one of these three.”

do we know he wasn't permitted to bring in other candidates? who else would have been good?

in theory it's good to get the process started ASAP, but of course that can create an awkward situation if the new GM doesn't like the work that has been done or wanted to handle it all himself

He was. The Bears had told the candidates that they were the finalists but also wanted to get their GM onboard first so they "could make the hire"

TBH I don't think Poles would've picked any of those three finalists had they not already been interviewed.

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who were the other options?

[Bulliever2020]

The problem with this line of thinking is that 1) you should have taken the timeout with 32 secs left, but 2) if you’re not going to do that, you have to burn it with 12-15 seconds left when you realize it’s taking too much time to get the offense set. #2 is worse, because now you can only run plays that go out of bounds, but it’s better than what happened. And it’s on Eberflus to make those calls.

Caleb had to change the play at the line because Eberflus screwed up but not burning the timeout, and then when the players took too long to set, the playcall that was in would no longer work.

The problem with that line of thinking is that you are using hindsight.
Now that we know the ball wasn't snapped until 6 seconds, and thrown at 2 seconds, pretty much anything else would have been better.

But at the 15 second marks in real time, the only person that knew when the ball would be snapped was CW, and I'm pretty sure no one would have expected him to take another 9 seconds to snap the ball.

You don't want to call a time-out at 13 seconds if he is snapping the ball at 11 seconds.

Also, why do think think Caleb had to change to play because Flus screwed up by not calling a time-out.
Caleb should have NOT changed the play and should have ran what was called, when it was called.....just like he said.
CW changing the play is what took EXTRA time.

No, this is silly. Flus should have called it with 32 left, but if he was going to go hurry-up, then there obviously needs to be a drop-dead point on the clock (15 secs, 12 secs, whatever) where he calls the timeout and resets to ensure they can run 2 plays.

this exactly. And also as soon as Flus saw Caleb was changing the play, any halfway decent coach could calculate easily in his head at that point that it was going to take too long, and should have immediately called the timeout. Do literally anything but what he did in that moment.

[dice]

darrell taylor:

week 1 - 2 sacks, 7 solo tackles
since - 0 sacks, 7 solo tackles

he is the fat dog thrilled to get the call to go on a walk who is spent by the time he gets to the corner. he'd better see a few squirrels by the end of the season

[dice]

sweat:

4 games sandwiching 2023 bye - 6.0 sacks, 16 pressures, 11 solo tackles, 3 TFL, 1 FF
(2 games vs. lions and sewell)

17 additional games in chicago - 4.5 sacks, 22 pressures, 18 solo tackles, 8 TFL, 1 FF

[nitetrain8603]

^^^Poles chose Flus out of the 3 choices. (Silvy says btw that at least 2 people on that search committee wanted Quinn). And Poles doubled down this offseason by retaining Eberflus, while we all knew Flus didn’t have the bones for the job. To try and shield Poles from his body of work, not for me. People are accountable. That’s healthy.

That’s all well and good, but we have to acknowledge that it’s a screwed-up process in the first place to have a search committee that has already interviewed the candidates before the GM is hired and then give him handcuffs by saying “you have to pick one of these three.”

I take exception to the "we all knew he didn't have the bones for the job". There was a lot of optimism with how the season ended (other than the loss to GB). Our defense was I believe the best in the league ever since adding Sweat. We had the #1 pick in a draft that was strong at QB. We were going to get a new OC and upgrade the line.

I think the thought process was "Eberflus has gotten the team to the point where all it needs is a better offense and it will be really good, and help is on the way in that area. Let's not switch HC's just because the timing makes sense, when we may have a good one in Eberflus. That could be taking a step backward".

So with fingers crossed, they kept him. I dont recall a lot of people screaming that it was a mistake. I think the general feeling was one of guarded optimism, mixed with some trepidation. It was probably a 60/40 call. Now that it's gone south, everyone is making it sound like Poles was on an island in his decision to keep Eberflus. I don't think that was the case at all. I don't even think any of the beat writers came out as being strongly against the decision. To lay this all on Poles now like it was a monumental failure on his part is revisionist history.

sweat:

4 games sandwiching 2023 bye - 6.0 sacks, 16 pressures, 11 solo tackles, 3 TFL, 1 FF
(2 vs. lions and sewell)

17 additional games in chicago - 4.5 sacks, 22 pressures, 18 solo tackles, 8 TFL, 1 FF

That's a move I didn't like and stated such back then. I get why he did it, but i still don't agree with it

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[Howling Mad]

w/ 1 TO the only real options are a quick TO after the sack or doing what flus chose. a TO w/ much less than 30 secs allows lions to take away sideline throws

w/o the quick TO, caleb MUST get off a play by about the 10 sec mark. ANY PLAY THAT CAN PICK UP A FEW YARDS OR MORE! even a handoff is better than what we got

I don't disagree with anything you said.

There were so many other possibilities than just letting the clock tick down.

[jnrjr79]

do we know he wasn't permitted to bring in other candidates? who else would have been good?

in theory it's good to get the process started ASAP, but of course that can create an awkward situation if the new GM doesn't like the work that has been done or wanted to handle it all himself

He was. The Bears had told the candidates that they were the finalists but also wanted to get their GM onboard first so they "could make the hire"

TBH I don't think Poles would've picked any of those three finalists had they not already been interviewed.

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who were the other options?

Dan Quinn (seems preferable) and Jim Caldwell (probably better just by default, but not inspiring).

[Dresden]

That’s all well and good, but we have to acknowledge that it’s a screwed-up process in the first place to have a search committee that has already interviewed the candidates before the GM is hired and then give him handcuffs by saying “you have to pick one of these three.”

I take exception to the "we all knew he didn't have the bones for the job". There was a lot of optimism with how the season ended (other than the loss to GB). Our defense was I believe the best in the league ever since adding Sweat. We had the #1 pick in a draft that was strong at QB. We were going to get a new OC and upgrade the line.

I think the thought process was "Eberflus has gotten the team to the point where all it needs is a better offense and it will be really good, and help is on the way in that area. Let's not switch HC's just because the timing makes sense, when we may have a good one in Eberflus. That could be taking a step backward".

So with fingers crossed, they kept him. I dont recall a lot of people screaming that it was a mistake. I think the general feeling was one of guarded optimism, mixed with some trepidation. It was probably a 60/40 call. Now that it's gone south, everyone is making it sound like Poles was on an island in his decision to keep Eberflus. I don't think that was the case at all. I don't even think any of the beat writers came out as being strongly against the decision. To lay this all on Poles now like it was a monumental failure on his part is revisionist history.

sweat:

4 games sandwiching 2023 bye - 6.0 sacks, 16 pressures, 11 solo tackles, 3 TFL, 1 FF
(2 vs. lions and sewell)

17 additional games in chicago - 4.5 sacks, 22 pressures, 18 solo tackles, 8 TFL, 1 FF

That's a move I didn't like and stated such back then. I get why he did it, but i still don't agree with it

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Sweat's been banged up this year, but he's still the guy that gets the most pressure on the QB. No reason to play him or Brisker, or anyone really until they are 100% at this point. Brisker especially they should be very conservative with. No real need for him to play again this season.

[dice]

He was. The Bears had told the candidates that they were the finalists but also wanted to get their GM onboard first so they "could make the hire"

TBH I don't think Poles would've picked any of those three finalists had they not already been interviewed.

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who were the other options?

Dan Quinn (seems preferable) and Jim Caldwell (probably better just by default, but not inspiring).

nobody hired quinn 'till this year though. caldwell still doesn't have a head gig

here were the coaches hired after flus that year:

daboll
allen
o'connell
mcdaniel
lovie
mcdaniels
pederson

o'connell is the obvious miss. would've been a bold choice for the bears to take a 36 y.o. w/ 3 yrs as OC

[panthermark]

The problem with that line of thinking is that you are using hindsight.
Now that we know the ball wasn't snapped until 6 seconds, and thrown at 2 seconds, pretty much anything else would have been better.

But at the 15 second marks in real time, the only person that knew when the ball would be snapped was CW, and I'm pretty sure no one would have expected him to take another 9 seconds to snap the ball.

You don't want to call a time-out at 13 seconds if he is snapping the ball at 11 seconds.

Also, why do think think Caleb had to change to play because Flus screwed up by not calling a time-out.
Caleb should have NOT changed the play and should have ran what was called, when it was called.....just like he said.
CW changing the play is what took EXTRA time.

No, this is silly. Flus should have called it with 32 left, but if he was going to go hurry-up, then there obviously needs to be a drop-dead point on the clock (15 secs, 12 secs, whatever) where he calls the timeout and resets to ensure they can run 2 plays.

this exactly. And also as soon as Flus saw Caleb was changing the play, any halfway decent coach could calculate easily in his head at that point that it was going to take too long, and should have immediately called the timeout. Do literally anything but what he did in that moment.

What seems to be getting missed is:

WHY THE HELL WAS THE QB CHANGING THE PLAY?!?!?!



The person that should have literally done anything else was the QB. Everyone can pile on Flus, and that is fine because he has done plenty wrong plenty of times. But the hard truth is that the person who **** up the last play of the game was Caleb Williams being that the goal was to save the TO for a FG.

You don't spend all day before you snap the ball because in that situation the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time (remember the announcer saying sarcastically that Caleb Williams is taking his time?)

You don't take time changing someone's route to a bomb in that situation because the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time.

You don't snap the ball at 6 seconds AND hold onto the ball for 4 seconds, then throw a bomb with 2 seconds left on the clock to the 3 yard line.


If CW doesn't take time to change the play and snaps the ball 3-4 seconds sooner, the original plan still has a chance to work and you can use the final TO to get a kick up.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but quickly throws and out towards the sidelines, you have another play. The key here is understanding that because you snapped the ball so late, any completion has to be to the sidelines so you can get another play off. The middle of the field or a scramble isn't an option.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but throws it into the dirt, you have another play and a TO to figure out what you want to do, be it a FG or hail mary.

Sure, it is easy to say what Flus should have done, but when I was yelling at the TV and expecting the ball to be snapped at 10 seconds, that last thing I would ever imagined was the ball being snapped at 6 seconds AND CW holding onto the ball for 4 seconds before throwing it to the 3 yard line. It was a stunning display of situational unawareness by the QB. But maybe that is a Flus trait because we saw our own defensive back taunting and jawing with fans in the crows WHILE a play was going on.

Maybe Flus is just really bad at situational awareness and it bleeds into his players? Hence I'm not sad that he is gone, but the execution of that last play was just pathetic.

[dice]

The problem with that line of thinking is that you are using hindsight.
Now that we know the ball wasn't snapped until 6 seconds, and thrown at 2 seconds, pretty much anything else would have been better.

But at the 15 second marks in real time, the only person that knew when the ball would be snapped was CW, and I'm pretty sure no one would have expected him to take another 9 seconds to snap the ball.

You don't want to call a time-out at 13 seconds if he is snapping the ball at 11 seconds.

Also, why do think think Caleb had to change to play because Flus screwed up by not calling a time-out.
Caleb should have NOT changed the play and should have ran what was called, when it was called.....just like he said.
CW changing the play is what took EXTRA time.

No, this is silly. Flus should have called it with 32 left, but if he was going to go hurry-up, then there obviously needs to be a drop-dead point on the clock (15 secs, 12 secs, whatever) where he calls the timeout and resets to ensure they can run 2 plays.

this exactly. And also as soon as Flus saw Caleb was changing the play, any halfway decent coach could calculate easily in his head at that point that it was going to take too long, and should have immediately called the timeout. Do literally anything but what he did in that moment.

too little time to call TO when caleb began changing play

[dice]

No, this is silly. Flus should have called it with 32 left, but if he was going to go hurry-up, then there obviously needs to be a drop-dead point on the clock (15 secs, 12 secs, whatever) where he calls the timeout and resets to ensure they can run 2 plays.

this exactly. And also as soon as Flus saw Caleb was changing the play, any halfway decent coach could calculate easily in his head at that point that it was going to take too long, and should have immediately called the timeout. Do literally anything but what he did in that moment.

What seems to be getting missed is:

WHY THE HELL WAS THE QB CHANGING THE PLAY?!?!?!



The person that should have literally done anything else was the QB. Everyone can pile on Flus, and that is fine because he has done plenty wrong plenty of times. But the hard truth is that the person who **** up the last play of the game was Caleb Williams being that the goal was to save the TO for a FG.

You don't spend all day before you snap the ball because in that situation the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time (remember the announcer saying sarcastically that Caleb Williams is taking his time?)

You don't take time changing someone's route to a bomb in that situation because the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time.

You don't snap the ball at 6 seconds AND hold onto the ball for 4 seconds, then throw a bomb with 2 seconds left on the clock to the 3 yard line.


If CW doesn't take time to change the play and snaps the ball 3-4 seconds sooner, the original plan still has a chance to work and you can use the final TO to get a kick up.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but quickly throws and out towards the sidelines, you have another play. The key here is understanding that because you snapped the ball so late, any completion has to be to the sidelines so you can get another play off. The middle of the field or a scramble isn't an option.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but throws it into the dirt, you have another play and a TO to figure out what you want to do, be it a FG or hail mary.

Sure, it is easy to say what Flus should have done, but when I was yelling at the TV and expecting the ball to be snapped at 10 seconds, that last thing I would ever imagined was the ball being snapped at 6 seconds AND CW holding onto the ball for 4 seconds before throwing it to the 3 yard line. It was a stunning display of situational unawareness by the QB. But maybe that is a Flus trait because we saw our own defensive back taunting and jawing with fans in the crows WHILE a play was going on.

Maybe Flus is just really bad at situational awareness and it bleeds into his players? Hence I'm not sad that he is gone, but the execution of that last play was just pathetic.

if caleb's goal was to get flus fired on that last play i'm not sure he could've done better. because he played the situation as poorly as possible while still allowing himself a flimsy excuse at a time when people were eager to blame the other guy

if you think it's the last play, why not at least wait another split second and get it to the end zone?! after all, it beats an actual hail mary call where D is expecting it

and yes, whatever play flus had planned for a different situation was still vastly preferable

[Susan]

No, this is silly. Flus should have called it with 32 left, but if he was going to go hurry-up, then there obviously needs to be a drop-dead point on the clock (15 secs, 12 secs, whatever) where he calls the timeout and resets to ensure they can run 2 plays.

this exactly. And also as soon as Flus saw Caleb was changing the play, any halfway decent coach could calculate easily in his head at that point that it was going to take too long, and should have immediately called the timeout. Do literally anything but what he did in that moment.

What seems to be getting missed is:

WHY THE HELL WAS THE QB CHANGING THE PLAY?!?!?!



The person that should have literally done anything else was the QB. Everyone can pile on Flus, and that is fine because he has done plenty wrong plenty of times. But the hard truth is that the person who **** up the last play of the game was Caleb Williams being that the goal was to save the TO for a FG.

You don't spend all day before you snap the ball because in that situation the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time (remember the announcer saying sarcastically that Caleb Williams is taking his time?)

You don't take time changing someone's route to a bomb in that situation because the one thing you can't afford to do is waste time.

You don't snap the ball at 6 seconds AND hold onto the ball for 4 seconds, then throw a bomb with 2 seconds left on the clock to the 3 yard line.


If CW doesn't take time to change the play and snaps the ball 3-4 seconds sooner, the original plan still has a chance to work and you can use the final TO to get a kick up.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but quickly throws and out towards the sidelines, you have another play. The key here is understanding that because you snapped the ball so late, any completion has to be to the sidelines so you can get another play off. The middle of the field or a scramble isn't an option.

If CW does change the play, and snaps the ball at the same time (6 seconds), but throws it into the dirt, you have another play and a TO to figure out what you want to do, be it a FG or hail mary.

Sure, it is easy to say what Flus should have done, but when I was yelling at the TV and expecting the ball to be snapped at 10 seconds, that last thing I would ever imagined was the ball being snapped at 6 seconds AND CW holding onto the ball for 4 seconds before throwing it to the 3 yard line. It was a stunning display of situational unawareness by the QB. But maybe that is a Flus trait because we saw our own defensive back taunting and jawing with fans in the crows WHILE a play was going on.

Maybe Flus is just really bad at situational awareness and it bleeds into his players? Hence I'm not sad that he is gone, but the execution of that last play was just pathetic.

Fields was better situationally in Pittsburgh than he was here - he's still a bit inconsistent but he's still getting there.

Monty and Mooney both wanted nothing to do with being here. Brisker just tweeted today that he was back on the field yesterday. Eberflus has been extremely bad for a long time.

[Jeffster81]

^^^Poles chose Flus out of the 3 choices. (Silvy says btw that at least 2 people on that search committee wanted Quinn).

Yes, this is correct, but as others have said he had to chose between three guys that was forced onto him. If Poles conducted the interviewing process, do you believe Poles final three would be between two defensive guys and an aging offensive guy, two of which were failed head coaches?

And Poles doubled down this offseason by retaining Eberflus, while we all knew Flus didn’t have the bones for the job.

I'm not sure I believe that report about him being the only one who wanted to retain Eberflus. If he was, I think they would have fired him. I simply believe McCaskey was simply too cheap to allow Flus to be fired at that time.

To try and shield Poles from his body of work, not for me. People are accountable. That’s healthy.

I am not doing such a thing. Poles should be allowed to have an interview process that is free from meddling from people like McCaskey and outside voices like Polian and the firm he recommended. Now, if Poles fails at this hire, I will be out in front, calling for Poles job.

[biggestbullsfan]

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[Almost Retired]

Center Prospects for 2025. Jake Majors has risen to to the top of the board for Centers. I've been watching him for years now. Great pass blocker. Great run blocker. Great leader on the O-Line. Great technique. I don't think he's given up a sack in the last 3 seasons, and he went against some good competition this year playing Michigan and playing in the SEC. I like Bryce Foster too if we wanted a bigger Center. I'm not as high on Parker Brailsford, I think he's too small to play at the next level. I think we might be able to get Majors with our 3rd round pick.

#1 RANKED - SCOUTING REPORT
Texas :Jake Majors Profile Picture
65
Jake
Majors
from Texas C 2025 Scouting Report
POSITION
RANK
#1
OUR
RATING
84.1
C
All Scouts Average
Overall Rank
350.7
All Scouts Average
Position Rank
66
Height
Feet
6-3
Weight
Lbs
315lbs
College
Senior
Texas
Forty Time
Secs
5.00
Player Summary
A technician with a nasty disposition, this pivot possesses the tools to compete for playing time in an NFL offensive line room from day one. His ability to diagnose defenses...
#2 RANKED - SCOUTING REPORT
Alabama Parker Brailsford Profile Picture
72
Parker
Brailsford
from Alabama C 2025 Scouting Report
POSITION
RANK
#2
OUR
RATING
83.0
C
All Scouts Average
Overall Rank
87.6
All Scouts Average
Position Rank
16
Height
Feet
6-2
Weight
Lbs
290lbs
College
Junior
Alabama
Forty Time
Secs
4.95
Player Summary
Parker Brailsford projects as a scheme-versatile center with the potential to make an immediate impact in the NFL. His exceptional athleticism and technical proficiency make him...
#3 RANKED - SCOUTING REPORT
Kansas Bryce Foster Profile Picture
61
Bryce
Foster
from Kansas C 2025 Scouting Report
POSITION
RANK
#3
OUR
RATING
82.2
C
All Scouts Average
Overall Rank
275
All Scouts Average
Position Rank
57
Height
Feet
6-5
Weight
Lbs
330lbs
College
Junior
Kansas
Forty Time
Secs
4.95
Player Summary
Foster fits the mold of a potential starting center with upside at the next level. His combination of size, strength, and elite athleticism provides a tantalizing foundation...