Matt Eberflus May Have Sabotaged The Bears Offense From The Start
Moving on from Luke Getsy was the right choice. After two years, it had become clear the former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator didn’t have any answers to the team’s passing woes. Head coach Matt Eberflus had to find someone to elevate a young quarterback. That is what eventually led him to Shane Waldron. To the shock of many, the offense hasn’t changed. It still struggles in pass protection, doesn’t execute well, and lacks identity. Waldron is already having calls for his head. Nobody can understand what went wrong.
Upon closer examination, it is possible Eberflus undercut his offensive coordinator before the season even began. People forget now because of the whirlwind of the past few months, but the Bears head coach didn’t fire everybody from Getsy’s former staff. Offensive line coach Chris Morgan was kept. It was a somewhat curious decision at the time. However, Eberflus argued the assistant had done good work with the Bears’ rushing attack and had helped scout Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright.
In hindsight, that may have been a miscalculation.
Matt Eberflus should’ve let Waldron make the decision.
It isn’t always a good thing when a head coach forces a staff together who lacks familiarity. There is no more critical coach on the offensive side than the line. He must have good chemistry with the coordinator, so the two are on the same page. He and Waldron have never once crossed paths. The latter’s run scheme is significantly different from Getsy’s, and the pass protection scheme is as well. Nobody stopped to think that maybe the two might clash in styles and preferences. At least, that might explain why the line looks so lost at times.
Since 2022, the Bears have allowed 137 sacks. That works out to 3.26 per game. No team has been as consistently bad over the same stretch. Yes, talent plays a part in it. The Bears haven’t invested a ton of high-end resources into the group. Then again, neither have the Los Angeles Rams, and they’ve allowed 2.53 sacks per game over that same stretch. Why? A lot of it comes from having a good offensive line coach (Kevin Carberry) familiar with Sean McVay’s offense.
Sticking Morgan and Waldron together may not have been the wisest decision by Matt Eberflus.