How the hell did we get here? To another bad Bears team stuck in the middle of another wasted season?
How has it come to this, the 2-7 Bears facing the 1-7 Panthers on Thursday night, with the only entertainment value being future draft standing?
After repeated promises from the Bears over the years that, no, really, this season will be different, how did this happen?
I receive two or three emails a day from sports betting sites telling me that Matt Eberflus is one of the favorites to be the next NFL coach fired. Given that the Bears aren’t good at football, it’s not exactly breaking news. And if you listened to the gibberish he proffered about Justin Fields’ injury situation the other day, you’re not even sure he could verbalize why he deserves to keep his job.
Eberflus gets the blame for this mess only because the laws of sports demand that somebody get the blame when a team is this bad. But the Bears’ results over the past year and a half imply that the coach can’t coach, the quarterback can’t quarterback, the defense can’t defend and the general manager can’t manage.
And that’s not even the Bears’ biggest problem.
The true culprit in all that ails the franchise, in all that has ailed the franchise for decades, is that the owners have no earthly idea how to own.
That would be the McCaskeys, the stewards of this strange, forlorn outfit.
I’m watching the Bears play Carolina on Thursday night, and they’re doing everything within their limited powers to avoid falling to 2-8. Rookie Tyson Bagent is starting for Fields for the fourth game in a row. That means the fiery debate continues between those who still believe Fields can become a good quarterback and those who would rather watch a former Division II free agent throw interceptions than Fields miss or ignore wide-open receivers.
Taking an interest in the outcome of Thursday’s race to the bottom is a fool’s game because, no matter what happens, the McCaskeys will still be in charge afterward. The Bears could beat the Panthers by five touchdowns, and, well, the McCaskeys. It’s a classic win-lose situation.
Everything that has happened in the last 30 years is a product of the family’s terrible hiring decisions. If you want to obsess on Eberflus’ shortcomings, go ahead. If you want him fired tomorrow, scream your lungs out. Just know that the next coach will be hired by general manager Ryan Poles, whom the McCaskey family hired to replace the previous GM, Ryan Pace.
It’s not uncommon for an aging pro athlete to sign a one-day contract so he can retire as a member of the team that brought him renown. It would be nice if the Bears signed Pace to a one-day contract so they can fire him again. Pace is the man who brought Mitch Trubisky and Fields to Chicago. The Bears are deep in quarterback hell, thanks to his analytical shortcomings.
The McCaskeys hired him, too. That’s really all you need to know.
It’s still early in Poles’ tenure, but his decision to trade the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft to acquire wide receiver D.J. Moore looks shaky with the spectacular rise of Texans rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, the second overall pick.
Please don’t tell me that you’d trust Poles with your life. Given the McCaskeys’ proclivity for making dreadful hires, the odds that Poles is God’s gift to football are about the same as the odds that I’m God’s gift to astrophysics.
On and on it goes.
This season somehow feels worse than other frightful seasons. There’s the standard losing and poor performances. But there’s also the September resignation of defensive coordinator Alan Williams, who reportedly left over inappropriate activity on the job – “inappropriate activity’’ being code for “you don’t want to know.’’ There’s the recent firing of running backs coach David Walker for workplace-behavior issues. There’s the odd case of wide receiver Chase Claypool, who apparently was so disruptive that a team in need of targets for Fields traded him. There’s the surprise of the normally reserved Fields saying the reason for his “robotic’’ play was information overload from Bears coaches.
This is a debacle. The McCaskeys don’t do debacles. That’s not to say they’re incapable of being the drum major of a tone-deaf, overserved marching band. It’s that, if the family has one guiding principle, it’s to avoid embarrassment at all costs. Ten games in, and there’s already been enough embarrassment to fuel a year’s worth of weird dreams for the family.
An excellent season for the McCaskeys is no drama, a lapel pin with George Halas’ initials, the usual heaping helping of revenue sharing and seven victories. Not too high, not too low.
Sometimes it feels like everything about the Bears is meant to take your mind off the bigger issue of who owns the team. We argue about whether Fields shortcomings are a product of poor coaching. We debate who should take Eberflus’ place.
We should be shaking a fist at the source of all this woe. Hint: It’s a family affair.
Ah, but pay no attention to that. The lowly Bears held on to beat the lowly Panthers 16-13!
