Monday proved to be an eventful day at Halas Hall as the Chicago Bears returned from a long weekend and convened for the first time since Friday’s firing of coach Matt Eberflus.
Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles met with the media to discuss Eberflus’ dismissal and their vision for the upcoming coaching search. And Thomas Brown led his first team meeting as interim head coach before also addressing reporters.
As the Bears march into Week 14, here are three things we learned.
1. Jaylon Johnson was unapologetic about his locker-room outburst at Matt Eberflus after Thursday’s loss in Detroit.
“I’m going to continue to be myself,” Johnson said during his regular Monday appearance on “Spiegel & Holmes” on WSCR-AM 670. “At the end of the day, what happened was a result of me being myself. I could have easily suppressed how I felt. … But if anybody knows me, they know I’m a very outspoken person and that when Jaylon gets to a certain point, he’s going to express how he feels.”
Like many players, coaches, executives and fans, Johnson was livid immediately after the Bears bungled the final 32 seconds of Thursday’s 23-20 loss to the Lions, failing to use their final timeout and mismanaging the clock on what was setting up to be a potential tying or winning drive.
Eberflus’ role in the fiasco was undeniable. And when he tried to address players in the locker room right after the loss, Johnson cut him off and launched into a passionate rant.
“I know I want to win,” Johnson said Monday. “I can’t speak for how badly anyone else wants to win. But I play the game to win individually and as a team. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about winning.”
The Bears have a 28-51 record during Johnson’s five seasons in Chicago, and he emphasized that his eruption Thursday was the result of a long buildup of chronic frustration.
“That just happened to be five years of it,” he said.
The Bears captain and Pro Bowl cornerback didn’t expect there to be fallout from the episode.
“At the end of the day, honestly, I don’t really give a damn about too much of it,” Johnson said. “It’s one of those things where, at some point, enough is enough just as far as expressing frustrations.”
Johnson is one of three Bears captains who do weekly appearances on The Score along with linebacker T.J. Edwards and wide receiver DJ Moore. Tight end Cole Kmet has a podcast (“The Eighty Five”) with CHGO Sports, and safety Kevin Byard and tight end Marcedes Lewis also have podcasts through David Kaplan’s “The REKAP” network.
With Brown asking Bears players to deal with team matters in house, Johnson was asked whether players might become reluctant to openly express themselves publicly after all that has happened this season.
“There has to be and there always should have been a level of professionalism when speaking on different platforms,” Johnson said. “Everybody has the right to speak on platforms. That’s what we’re in this position for, to speak on the platform we’re on and try to impact those around us. And I feel like there’s a professional way to do it.
“At the end of the day, we go to work with the guys in the building. And we owe a certain respect not just to the guys in the locker room or the building but to the game. And I think with respecting the game comes with keeping a certain level of professionalism and a certain level of things in house.”
2. GM Ryan Poles said Caleb Williams’ development remains ‘critical’ as the Bears identify their next coach.
Williams might have to play under three offensive play callers — and four offensive coordinators — in his first 18 starts if the Bears hire someone other than Brown as their next head coach this offseason.
Williams went through a midseason offensive coordinator change when the Bears fired Shane Waldron and promoted Brown to the role. Now Brown is the interim coach and Chris Beatty the new offensive coordinator, with Brown still calling the plays.
Amid all that change, the Bears will be weighing other options over the next six weeks to guide Williams’ development next season. It’s a less-than-ideal situation for a young quarterback, but Poles noted he has seen Williams’ growth despite the team’s bumps this season.
“We’ve always got to keep that in mind and we’re going to make sure we go back to doing what’s best for the Bears,” Poles said. “His development is critical. So we need to make sure there’s alignment in that space so he can continue to get better.”
Poles stopped short of saying Williams would provide specific input in the coaching search, but candidates’ plans for a young quarterback would be paramount.
3. Thomas Brown steered around a direction question about what went wrong in the final 32 seconds Thursday.
The Bears’ mishandling of the final stages of the loss was put on blast all weekend throughout the football world. The ineptitude of the moment was as astonishing as it was comical.
But Brown preferred to keep the cleanup of those failed processes in house.
“I’m not going to get into the weeds of what was communicated or not communicated,” he said. “Because that’s irrelevant and over with now.”
Rest assured, Bears coaches have privately sifted through that communication malfunction and all that led up to it. But Brown also wanted players to understand that the final fatal error wasn’t the lone reason they lost.
“Don’t neglect the fact that we had several opportunities throughout the entire game,” he said. “We dug ourselves into a hole in the first half by going down 16-0.
“We battled back into that game and started that (final) drive inside the 1-yard line with 3:31 left on the clock. We had several opportunities before that (last sequence) to go execute. But we definitely have an opportunity to learn from that. And I don’t remove myself from accountability in those scenarios.”
