The Bears found the first answer to uncomfortable offseason questions on Wednesday when they opted to keep head coach Matt Eberflus but fire offensive coordinator Luke Getty and much of the offensive staff.
It's an answer that suggests the franchise still refuses to think boldly and finds itself once again in a never-ending cycle of losing perpetuated by the inability to have a general manager, coach and quarterback on the same schedule.
The decision to keep Eberflus but fire Getsy leaves the spotlight on the impending decision at quarterback and whether the Bears will stick with Justin Fields or move on from him and select either Caleb Williams or Drake Maye with the No. 1 overall pick.
One could read the decision to keep Eberflus as a tacit admission that the Bears will stick with Fields because the head coach will need to win in 2024, and Fields is the best chance to do that.
Those on the other side of the Bears' quarterback debate will view it as an indication that they plan to draft a quarterback No. 1 overall. Having Caleb Williams or Drake Maye is the Bears' best selling point for a potential in-demand offensive coordinator, and could be a lifeline to give Eberflus a two-year window as long as everything points to year one with the rookie signal caller regardless of record.
Wednesday's moves could be viewed as a Rorschach test regarding one's feelings about Fields and his future in Chicago. Those who want him to stay view Getsy's firing but keeping Eberflus as an admission that it was the system, not the quarterback, that was the problem. Others will see it as a sign that the Bears plan to scrap the entire offense, including the quarterback, and start over.
Conventional wisdom says that a move to clean out most of the offensive staff while keeping Eberflus would spell the end for Fields in Chicago.
Things seemed to be going this way before Getsy was shot. Fields played well down the stretch but never provided the resounding closing statement needed to move the Bears solidly in his corner. The 24-year-old quarterback said he had “no regrets,” but said goodbye to Chicago media and Bears fans after the season-ending loss to the Green Bay Packers “just in case.”
It will be difficult for the Bears to attract a highly sought-after offensive coordinator this offseason, given the shaky ground Eberflus finds himself on. Yes, there are only 32 of these positions, but most coordinators will prioritize heading somewhere where they will have several years to succeed. Asking said OC candidates to develop an offense designed around what Fields succeeds at in the NFL would likely shrink the pool of candidates.
This will also be Fields' third offensive coordinator and third system in four seasons. This season, Fields talked about how it took until year two of Getsy's system for him to feel completely comfortable. Playing quarterback in the NFL is a mentally demanding task that requires countless hours to master the verbiage of the system. Asking Fields to learn a new system without guaranteeing he, the new coordinator and Eberflus a 2025 season would be a recipe for disaster.
Having the No. 1 overall pick and the right to draft and develop either Williams or Maye is the Bears' best selling point for a quality OC willing to join a staff that may be cleaned out in a year.
It won't completely solve their problem, but the possibility of tying yourself to a generational prospect should be interesting for an up-and-coming coordinator looking to make a name for himself. This should at least give the Bears a good pool of candidates.
All of this suggests that Fields is playing elsewhere in 2024.
But the Bears don't often subscribe to conventional wisdom, so it's not out of the field — which the Bears operate on — to hire an OC with the expectation that he builds a system around the fields, and everyone moves forward from there.
Either way, it's not a winning formula.
Whether or not the Bears stick with Fields or draft a quarterback, the decision-makers at Halas Hall have given their franchise quarterback an impossible task. Either they'll ask Fields to learn his third system in four seasons and once again thrive on a losing hand, or they'll put a rookie quarterback on a lame-duck team and repeat the mistakes made with John Foxx, Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy. and Justin Fields.
It would be unreasonable to link Wednesday's move directly to the center's imminent decision. But the Bears have proven they're not serious time and time again, and there's no reason to believe it will be any different.
They'll either ask Fields to prove himself in a new system, or they'll restart the cycle of quarterback failure and wonder why they can't do it right.
Neither is a recipe for success. But the Bears have been searching for one for nearly half a century. Maybe it slipped under a desk in the back office in Hallas Hall. Maybe they will find it one day.
But not on a day that closely resembled a number of other failures in franchise history.
When the Bears decided to keep Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace after the 2020 season, then-president Ted Phillips infamously said:
“Did we get the quarterback situation quite right? No. Did we win enough games? No. But everything else is there.”
History, as it often does, repeats itself, especially in Al-Halis Hall. The Bears still haven't gotten the quarterback position right. Wednesday's moves do not inspire confidence that they are on the right track, regardless of what the future holds for Justin Fields.
Click here to follow the Under Center Podcast.
