*OFFICIAL* Offseason Rumors, Signings, and Shenanigans

[Visionman]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1490688531089346563

Matt Eberflus isn’t an offensive coach. But he does have an offensive philosophy, believe it or not. The new Bears coach wasn’t born yesterday, and he didn’t spend the last 15 years with horse blinders on—so he knew all along, coming up as a defensive coach, how hard it would be for him to find the sort of opportunity Chicago just gave him.

“You have eight jobs open, six of them are going to offensive guys, that’s already a given,” Eberflus said over the phone on Saturday. “So you have to be spot on when you’re doing your interviews to make sure that you have a plan in place for the offense. And I wouldn’t say that’s No. 1; I would say that’s No. 2. Because what’s really going to be the one that gets you the job is the type of man you are and the type of leader you are.”

Eberflus, of course, went into No. 1 with Bears ownership over the last month, explaining to them how any piece of the team would fit with the next, how he wanted to develop coaches through the program and all of that. But, sure, he knew that he had to sell the people on the other side of the table on his vision for an offense, one that someone else would be calling, and for second-year quarterback Justin Fields.

His vision was clear when we talked.

“I want an offense that’s going to be attacking, that stretches the defense horizontally and vertically, and I want them to be willing to have the ability to punch the defense right where it counts and to be able to move the ball down the field,” he said. “I want the attitude and the style to be right. Are we going to talk about route concepts that hurt defenses, and run schemes that hurt the defense? Yeah, that’s important. But the way in which you play is more important, and that’s what I want in the offense.”

And the triggerman is important too, which is why Eberflus spent an hour and a-half with Fields on his first day on the job. He explained his vision to make Fields as efficient as he can be, and to build an offense around, and for, the former first-round pick.

“I just see a guy that’s ready to develop. He’s so ready to develop and wants to be sponge,” said Eberflus. “We’ve talked about giving him an education on the defensive side in terms of coverages as well as the offensive side in terms of schemes. He’s ready to develop and excited to get going. Certainly, he has the skill set to move the ball with his legs, and we’re also looking at the concept of him being able to get the ball out of his hands, take what the defense gives you, and not only the underneath throws, but also the deep throw.”

Which is to say, yes, even though Eberflus is a defensive coach, he not only knows how important Fields’s development will be, he’s also not afraid to get in the weeds of it.

Here are a few more things from our conversation …

• The Bears also immediately landed Packers pass-game coordinator Luke Getsy, then got most of Eberflus’s defensive infrastructure, led by new DC Alan Williams, out of Indy. And that’s a pretty good sign for how things are getting off the ground. “I pulled out my list that I had when I interviewed, and I’m looking at it and I’m going, ‘Jeez, I wanted to be right around 65 to 70%, and if I could get those guys, I’m doing pretty good,’” Eberflus said. “I told those guys in the interview, I said, ‘Yeah, I think I can give you a little close to that.’ And things happen and guys decide for different reasons what they want to do. But we have a lot of good relationships with these coaches, and they’re all like-minded.” Safe to say the Bears did better than 65 to 70%? “Yes,” Eberflus said, “it’s safe to say that.”

• New GM Ryan Poles and Eberflus, who share an agent, were introduced a couple of years back through mutual friends—the kind of matchmaking that commonly happens with rising young execs and coaches—and it didn’t take long for the two to realize something was there. The first conversation lasted over an hour. They talked about style of play and preferences in personnel, and they resolved to keep in touch afterward. “I was just like, ‘Man, that was really good.’ And he said the same thing after talking to him later,” Eberflus said. “And we just kept our conversations going and the relationship going, and sure enough, this year during this cycle, he was up for a bunch of jobs, I was up for a couple jobs and it just worked out.”

Eberflus always says what’s on the tape is a coach’s résumé—it’s one way he’s worked out his staff hires with guys like Getsy whom he hasn’t worked with before. All the same, he correlated Chiefs tape with conversations he and Poles had, and there was a lot he wound up liking. “What I see in terms of their length, the explosive athletic ability, the speed is all over the tape when you watch those guys,” Eberflus said. “And I just love the way they have put together that roster. … The 80-20 rule, to me it’s 80% skill and talent you have on the field, and then the 20% is the other part, the coaching, the scheme, the culture, how we play, the physical style, all that. But really, 80% of it’s the players. This is the NFL. It’s about having the best players you can on the field, and that’s really what Ryan and his group are going to do, is bring those guys in.”

Doing that would build on an already good start for the new Bears brain trust, which was manifested in all the staff hires Poles and Eberflus made. And from there, yup, getting the quarterback going would be a pretty good next step.

That’s a great interview. More coherent thought in that than Nagy’s entire tenure…

 

[DeerBrinker34]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1490456548711313408

Ridley for Goldman.

Chicago doesn't have much else left to offer in a trade.

 

[Dejo]

That’s a great interview. More coherent thought in that than Nagy’s entire tenure…

Great to see an actual vision for things and a desire to right the ship. Maybe Nagy had that early on, but the purposefully missed meetings was straight dickerish.

 

[dennehy]

Damone Clark is a really good prospect, doubt the Bears have the luxury to pick an ILB where they'd need to to get him.

 

[Dejo]

Ridley for Goldman.

Chicago doesn't have much else left to offer in a trade.

If that is all it took, Poles would be fleecing some peeps. I bet he is in demand. The Ridley and Cooper availabilities is going to be interesting, especially with Kirk, Chark, and others available in FA. Depends how desperate the teams are to get rid of their talented WRs.

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Great to see an actual vision for things and a desire to right the ship. Maybe Nagy had that early on, but the purposefully missed meetings was straight dickerish.

I think the deeper and deeper we get in on Nagy's stuff, the more we find is that the man was a genuine coaching con artist who parlayed his ability to gain people's trust into coaching gigs rather than showing any real aptitude for it.

 

[dennehy]

Ridley for Goldman.

Chicago doesn't have much else left to offer in a trade.

Hard to see any trade demand for Goldman. He was average to below average this year and missed all of 2020.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

Hard pass on Ridley. He's already quit on his team once, I don't understand why some of you want to give up draft capital on a quitter. Fuck that.

 

[Dejo]

Hard pass on Ridley. He's already quit on his team once, I don't understand why some of you want to give up draft capital on a quitter. Fuck that.

You wouldn’t give Goldman for Ridley (assuming that is even a reality).

 

[bears26]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1490698106651951109

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

You wouldn’t give Goldman for Ridley (assuming that is even a reality).

a quitter for a quitter? No, I don’t want that mentality on my team. But i was referring to the proposed 3rd for him

 

[dabears70]

Hard pass on Ridley. He's already quit on his team once, I don't understand why some of you want to give up draft capital on a quitter. Fuck that.

So you think he was lying about having mental issues for the reason he walked away last year?

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1490698106651951109

Yeah, Mully is a meathead. Poster child for Bears Fear Porn journalism...

 

[pseudonym]

Hard pass on Ridley. He's already quit on his team once, I don't understand why some of you want to give up draft capital on a quitter. Fuck that.

Guy had mental health issues. The brain is a muscle like any other in the body. You wouldn't say a guy was a quitter if he had a torn ACL. Would you rather he killed himself due to depression and/or anxiety? I do hear what you're saying about him being unreliable right now. That's true, but don't have such a shitty attitude about mental health. I hope he gets the help he needs and can play again. A lot of guys get brain injuries playing football. It's a tough sport. You see fallout much like in the military. Hard to come back from a place where you are killing people and then assimilate. Hard to get on the field with a violent mindset and then turn it off.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

So you think he was lying about having mental issues for the reason he walked away last year?

No idea. If he has 'mental issues' that make him walk out on his team, then yes I don't want him here why woud you ? Go get help for yourself and stop wasting everyone's time/money.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

Guy had mental health issues. The brain is a muscle like any other body. You wouldn't say a guy was a quitter if he had a torn ACL. Would you rather he killed himself due to depression and/or anxiety? I do hear what you're saying about him being unreliable right now. That's true, but don't have such a shitty attitude about mental health. I hope he gets the help he needs and can play again. A lot of guys get brain injuries playing football. It's a tough sport. You see fallout much like in the military. Hard to come back from a place where you are killing people and then assimilate. Hard to get on the field with a violent mindset and then turn it off.

completely different scenarios getting injured while IN GAME then feeling blue and quitting. See post above.

 

[pseudonym]

completely different scenarios getting injured while IN GAME then feeling blue and quitting. See post above.

"Feeling blue" is a bullshit answer. If your brain isn't working right, that can lead to suicide, lack of sleep, violent outbursts, lack of motivation, physical ailments, etc. Does it make him unreliable? Maybe. Are there football players who get hurt all the time and are less reliable (knee injuries, etc.)? Sure. You obviously don't understand mental health, depression, and/or anxity. It can be crippling. I honestly just think he should probably walk away from the sport and get the help he needs, but then again, this may be the only way he knows to earn a living. Tricky situation.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

"Feeling blue" is a bullshit answer. If your brain isn't working right, that can lead to suicide, lack of sleep, violent outbursts, lack of motivation, physical ailments, etc. Does it make him unreliable? Maybe. Are there football players who get hurt all the time and are less reliable (knee injuries, etc.)? Sure. You obviously don't understand mental health, depression, and/or anxity. It can be crippling. I honestly just think he should probably walk away from the sport and get the help he needs, but then again, this may be the only way he knows to earn a living. Tricky situation.

OH you know his diagnosis ?

Feeling blue, anxiety, depression you can label it however you want. I certainly understand it, if he wasn't a millionaire already, he'd have to deal with it and not walk out on his job like the millions of others that struggle with mental health. He's no different, other than he is set for life financially. Like I said, hard pass.

 

[ZOMBIE@CTESPN]

OH you know his diagnosis ?

Feeling blue, anxiety, depression you can label it however you want. I certainly understand it, if he wasn't a millionaire already, he'd have to deal with it and not walk out on his job like the millions of others that struggle with mental health. He's no different, other than he is set for life financially. Like I said, hard pass.

There are enough hurdles with this team to get over it’s like why add another lol

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

There are enough hurdles with this team to get over it’s like why add another lol

Yep, I would take Cooper though.