Windy City Gridiron
With the 2024 NFL regular season in the rearview mirror, it’s time for reflection in Chicago. Despite a (7-10) season in 2023, everything fell apart despite a (4-2) start. Another important offseason awaits, so we’ll dive into all of that and more on our final installment of Bears Takes for the 2024 season.
The all-too-familiar disappointment of the 2024 NFL regular season has finally ended for the (5-12) Chicago Bears. On a positive note, Chicago knocked off the Green Bay Packers for the first time in 12 games, sending them on a playoff date to Philadelphia to face the Eagles next weekend.
Despite high hopes for the season and good vibes gracing the fanbase in September, their (4-2) was simply a mirage, not a sign of future things. Many Bears fans wish they could go back to that feeling heading into their Week 7 bye week, but alas, reality hit harder than usual when they finished the season losing 10 of their last 11 games.
With the midseason firings of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and head coach Matt Eberflus in the rearview mirror, the organization will shift its focus to hiring a new head football coach… and maybe more. We’ll dive into everything that occurred this season, what’s ahead, and how optimistic fans should be feeling heading into another pivotal offseason in one final edition of 10 Bears Takes.
1. The decision to retain Matt Eberflus in January looked terrible in the moment. Zooming out, it was just another costly decision that history had warned the organization about. Can the Bears make things right for Caleb Williams in 2025 and Beyond?
At the end of last season, the team president and general manager fully supported Eberflus. Despite three days of deliberation following the conclusion of the regular season, the decision to retain a head coach with an (11-23) record was made lightly. All that, knowing they’d have a pair of Top 10 picks, close to $100 million in cap space, and a rookie quarterback under center.
We’ll never know how much of an impact ownership and their finances had on the overall decision, but it was clear (even now) that it was wrong. Look no further than Jim Harbaugh taking the Los Angeles Chargers from a five-win team to a Wild Card team in one season with arguably a worse roster. Rebuilds (or re-tools) don’t need to take three-plus years to produce wins, and teams like the Chargers and Washington Commanders are living proof of that.
No matter how finances (or lack thereof) played into the final decision to retain Eberflus, Chicago now must pivot in Year 2 of another rookie quarterback. Earlier in the offseason, I detailed a checklist of items the Bears must acknowledge to avoid repeating a long history of failing their rookie quarterbacks. Despite Poles repeatedly acknowledging that history and vowing to be better, the Bears are back in the same place they were a year after drafting the likes of Mitchell Trubisky, Justin Fields, and...
