Thomas Brown gets to the bottom of Bears' problems
Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown believes in the power of confrontation and candor, and prides himself on being a guy who tells you truths you might not want to hear. He’s done that with Caleb Williams, Tyrique Stevenson and several others.
Up next, general manager Ryan Poles.
Brown has had a running dialogue with Poles since he replaced Matt Eberflus on Nov. 29 about the players, the makeup of the roster, “intangibles we need to have” and all sorts of issues that ail the Bears. But he said he’ll go “in deeper detail” in his upcoming formal interview for the permanent job. It’s almost certain Poles will get more out of the interview than Brown will.
And it could be an eye-opener for Poles regarding his cherished culture and foundation, which might not be quite what he thinks it is.
“Us being on the same page for sure is going to be a big part of that — a collaborative effort to moving to a one-focus mentality,” Brown said Monday at his end-of-season press conference. “I’ve challenged every guy in the locker room to have a different perspective, a different mentality.
“Ultimately the best teams are player led, so the more they control the locker room … the [better] opportunity for them to address issues in the offseason and get the respect you need from a locker-room standpoint is going to be important.”
What’s missing? “I don’t have the time to go through everything I think is missing,” Brown said. “But from the standpoint of the culture is about the people. The foundational pieces that start in the offseason, but the mentality of expecting and the belief to win, and approaching it that way every day as far as how you go about your business. That’s one thing that’s missing.”
Brown tacitly acknowledged that the Bears’ inability to respond after the Hail Mary debacle against the Commanders — they lost 10 consecutive games — exposed a fundamental flaw in the makeup of the team.
“I think it’s all a foundational issue,” Brown said. “A mentality of how not to fall apart in critical moments has got to be taught from the very beginning.”
Brown said he has had “a number of dialogues” with cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, the main culprit of he Hail Mary play who was benched for two series against the Cardinals as punishment.
Brown declined to say how he would have handled it differently than Eberflus did.
“It has already transpired, so I’m not trying to talk negatively about what did happen,” he said.”But the understanding of what’s required from all of us to be at our best, the one-on-one dialogues are important as well, but understanding how every single member of the roster ticks, to being out the best [in] them.”
Several key problems Brown addressed were foundational issues. Asked how much different the Bears offense with Williams would look under his full-time leadership, Brown said, “A lot different. If you want to be a great team, a great quarterback, a great player, in general it’s built in the offseason, long before you p lay a football game. So the foundational piece is going to be different.”
And he indicated he handle Williams differently than the Bears did under Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
“To me, it’s honesty,” Brown said. “I think one of the difficult parts about the quarterback position that I’ve found is people baby the quarterback too much and they worry more about being liked by the quarterback than tell him what he needs to hear.
“One of the things we connected on is I was honest from the get-go about what I wanted to bring to the table, but also what issues I saw in him, with my overall goal being about making him the best he can be.”