Is Thomas Brown a legitimate candidate to become the Bears’ next head coach?
Anytime a coach draws comparisons to Mike Tomlin, you have to pay attention. But you also have to be careful with notions like this in Chicago, where the bar is so low for offensive coaches that anyone who has any kind of success shines a little brighter than anywhere else.
In 1999, first-year offensive coordinator Gary Crowton’s screen-heavy passing offense mesmerized Bears fans so much, it didn’t matter that the Bears were 25th in scoring despite a jump from 21st to eighth in total yards. The Bears couldn’t let Crowton get away — even if they had to promote him to head coach and kick Dick Jauron to the curb, in the eyes of some observers. Or at least one.
But 13 games into the 2000 season, Crowton was gone. With his Bears offense fizzling — averaging just 13 points a game, 28th in the NFL — Crowton left with three games to go to become the head coach of BYU. And Bears fans — probably many of the same fans who feared losing him a few months earlier — couldn’t wait to see him go.
That’s the way it is here. In 2015, Adam Gase parlayed one year as the Bears’ offensive coordinator into the Dolphins head coaching job — after Jay Cutler had a career-best 92.3 passer rating. Never mind that Gase’s offense was 25th in the NFL in scoring (the same as the previous season). Or that Cutler’s passer rating was still only 16th in the NFL.
And in 2022, when Luke Getsy’s offense scored 29 or more points in four consecutive games, Bears fans again were wondering how long the Bears would be able to keep Getsy and reporters were asking Matt Eberflus about Getsy’s head coaching potential.
After the Bears averaged 14.2 points in their final six games, the excitement turned to doubt. A year later, after Justin Fields and the Bears offense stagnated, Getsy was fired.
Brown is next in line, and he already has impressive credentials. In two games as offensive coordinator, Brown has breathed life into the Bears’ offense and turned Caleb Williams back into the franchise quarterback prospect he’s expected to be. And he hasn’t done it against the Panthers and Jaguars, but two of the better defenses in the NFL — the Packers (ninth in scoring, 10th in yards) and Vikings (fifth in scoring, 11th in yards).
But it’s the respect he commands from players that makes Brown an intriguing coaching prospect. The advantage of not being Shane Waldron is a great start. But beyond that, Bears players have a belief in Brown they did not have in Waldron.
And maybe its wishful thinking, but Brown does have a Tomlin-like presence — a no-nonsense, confident, forthright approach that exudes leadership.
Whether or not Brown actually has that quality remains to be seen. The catch is that there’s no one at Halas Hall who has shown the intuition to identify that “it” factor.
On the contrary, general manager Ryan Poles reportedly talked to Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell in 2022 — and hired Eberflus less than 48 hours after he himself was hired. Eberflus reportedly interviewed two candidates for the offensive coordinator position and quickly hired Getsy.
When Getsy was fired, Eberflus and Poles interviewed Kliff Kingsbury, Klint Kubiak, Zac Robinson — and Thomas Brown — among others, and hired Waldron. Knowing he was going to have a rookie quarterback in 2024, Poles declined the opportunity to replace Eberflus with an offensive-guru head coach and resolutely doubled down on Eberflus.
So the question the Bears are expected to soon face — yet again — isn’t just, ‘Can they get the right guy?’ It’s whether they’ll even know him when they see him.
2. This is an age-old problem at Halas Hall that starts at the very top. In 2012, the Bears hired Phil Emery as general manager over Jason Licht, now the Super Bowl-winning GM of the Buccaneers.
The Bears and Chiefs each fired their head coach at the end of that 2012 season. The Chiefs hired Andy Reid four days later. Emery took 16 days to hire Marc Trestman — over Bruce Arians, who became the Super Bowl-winning coach of the Buccaneers. He was hired by … Jason Licht.
3. Here’s how one thing leads to another when a team is heading down the drain.
Eberflus on why he challenged Jordan Addison’s 69-yard catch that ended up costing him a timeout: “I threw the challenge flag because it was an explosive.”
Williams on the Bears confusion on fourth-and-four from the Vikings’ 27 on the ensuing possession: “You obviously aren’t going to use another time out because you know the game is going to be close at the end. We already used one.”
4. The confusion on the fourth-and-four play — Williams rushed to beat the play clock and threw an incomplete pass to Keenan Allen — is Exhibit A in the case against Eberflus. Not just because of the obvious lack of preparedness for a critical moment, but because it’s the second time Eberflus has been overtly caught unprepared.
It also happened in Week 3 against the Colts, when the Bears had to call time out to set up a two-point conversion in an obvious two-point conversion situation — down 14-9 after Williams’ one-yard pass to Rome Odunze with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter.
5. That, unfortunately, is one of many errors that have been repeated in Eberflus’ third season as head coach. Earlier in the game, the Bears had a field goal blocked for the second consecutive week.
And perhaps the biggest indictment of Eberflus as head coach is the repeated use of “technique” and “details” as the reason for execution failures — like Monday in addressing the blocked field goal against the Vikings and the defense’s regression in the last month. It’s all Eberflus has at this point. But to acknowledge such fundamental, foundational issues in Week 12 of Year 3 is self-incriminating.
6. Williams has not thrown an interception in five consecutive starts — only Jim McMahon (seven in 1984) and Kyle Orton (six in 2008) have had longer streaks.
Williams’ stretch of 193 passes without an interception is the longest since Brian Hoyer did not throw an interception in 200 passes in his only six games (five starts) with the Bears in 2016. Orton holds the franchise record with 205 consecutive passes without an interception in 2008.
7. The Bears’ offensive line of Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, Matt Pryor and Darnell Wright played all 76 snaps against the Vikings — only the third time in 11 games the Bears’ offensive line has played the entire game (excluding three kneel-downs to close out the Jaguars game).
The Bears’ offensive line in fact, has had 16 in-game changes for injury or rotation this season. The 10-1 Lions, on the other hand, had their first in-game lineup change of the season Sunday, when left tackle Taylor Decker missed 14 plays with knee and ankle injuries — but returned and finished the game.
Continuity makes a difference. The Lions’ starting offensive line of Decker, Graham Glasgow, Frank Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler and Penei Sewell has played 92.1% of the offensive snaps this season. The Bears’ most frequent lineup has played 83.8% of the offensive snaps.
8. Cairo Santos is the first kicker to have back-to-back field goal attempts of less than 50 yards blocked since the Browns’ Travis Coons in 2015 (47, 42 yards).
Fun Fact: Santos also is the last Chiefs kicker to have a kick of less than 50 yards blocked — a 27-yarder that Pernell McPhee blocked in an 18-17 loss to the Bears in 2017 at Arrowhead Stadium.
9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Panthers place-kicker Eddy Pineiro was 4 for 4 on field goal attempts in a 30-27 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. Pineiro has hit 16 of 17 field goals this season (94.1%) — his only miss was a 45-yarder against the Bears.
Pineiro is the NFL’s all-time career percentage leader (89.7%, 105 of 117) and has made 91 of his last 98 attempts (92.9%), including his last 11 with the Bears in 2019.
10. Bear-ometer — 5-12: at Lions (L); at 49ers (L); at Vikings (L); vs. Lions (L); vs. Seahawks (W); at Packers (L).