Cornerback Jaylon Johnson was asked this week if it was difficult for him to tune out the constant questions about the Bears’ future.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “If you’ve been in the organization long enough, you’re used to it by now. Just keep your head down. Continue to work.”
That’s the heart of the matter facing chairman George McCaskey and first-year president/CEO Kevin Warren as the Bears prepare to play their second-to-last game of the season Sunday against the Falcons. Does a franchise that has had two head coaches, three offensive coordinators, three defensive coordinators and two presidents in the last three seasons need more change? Or has coach Matt Eberflus proven his mettle by navigating the storm this year, even if it was partially one of his own making?
“I feel like every player in that locker room would tell you this is probably one the craziest seasons they have experienced,” safety Eddie Jackson said.
Does Eberflus deserve blame for that? Or credit for steadying things?
The Bears’ faint playoff hopes can be extinguished Sunday — they need to run the table and have the Seahawks and Rams lose out, plus get more help from other teams, to make the postseason — but they could also lock in the Panthers’ No. 1 overall pick of the draft. A win would boost their record to 7-9 with the season finale next week at Lambeau Field.
The Bears have the ninth-best point differential in the NFL since Week 11. Their defense trails only the 49ers in interceptions this season. They’ve run for the second-most yards in the league and allowed the fewest.
That spells upward momentum for a team that started the season 0-4.
“You look at what we’ve done the past two months, and we’re a good football team … ” tight end Cole Kmet said. “There’s a lot of evidence of us being on the rise.”
It didn’t feel that way when defensive coordinator Alan Williams and running backs coach David Walker, assistants whom Eberflus hired, both left the team this earlier season. Neither were by choice. Eberflus took over defensive play-calling in Week 2.
“I feel like it was one of the most craziest seasons I had,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “And I told the guys I never experienced something like that. Losing a coordinator. The season off to not the type of start we thought we were going to have. And guys going down, getting banged up — me going down, missing six games. Then another coach resigned.”
The Bears, he said, have rebounded from that point.
“It was just so crazy, but one thing we learned was like destruction comes first — you know, things have to be teared down for you to see the glory of it,” Jackson said. “I feel like it’s something bright. Honestly, man, it’s something good coming to this team and that’s just like with life. When you go through troubles, trials, tribulations in life, at the end of that tunnel there is always light.
“I feel like there is something special with this team, man. It [stinks] that we caught fire [so] late in the season.”
The Bears aren’t exactly bathed in glory, sitting in last place in the NFC North. But they’ve won four of six games for the first time since the middle of 2020.
“You can see guys buying into it by the way they practice, by the way they hustle, by the way they do the little details …” Eberflus said. “It’s just guys buying into it.”
The question, though, is whether Eberflus will be able to say the same about his bosses.
