Chicago Bears defensive end DeMarcus Walker could tell Thursday night after the players left the visiting locker room at Ford Field that change was coming.
The next day, the Bears fired coach Matt Eberflus with five games remaining in the 2024 season and promoted Thomas Brown to interim head coach. Eberflus finished his 2½ seasons with the Bears with a 14-32 record, including 4-8 this season.
“You guys just look at the whole turnaround, how everything had been going, we just knew some changes were going to be made,” Walker said Wednesday, the first time the Bears locker room had been open to media since the coaching change.
It wasn’t just cornerback Jaylon Johnson’s locker-room outburst after the loss to the Detroit Lions that signaled a change. Johnson spoke up with his frustration after Eberflus failed to call a timeout to help rookie quarterback Caleb Williams run more than one play in the final 32 seconds of a 23-20 loss.
It was the accumulation of the six-game losing streak and the mistakes that plagued those performances. The players were collectively discontented.
Walker said he had a postgame reaction similar to Johnson’s a week earlier after the loss to the Minnesota Vikings, in which the Bears staged a comeback only to lose in overtime.
“I was pissed,” Walker said. “To lose that many close games, we have to dial up and be more detailed.
“(Against the Vikings) it was just like, certain (defensive) plays called. I just feel like you’ve got to let your players play. You know?”
Johnson didn’t speak to reporters Wednesday. Only two of the eight Bears captains — Williams and linebacker T.J. Edwards — were made available.
But Johnson said Monday during his paid weekly appearance on WSCR-AM 670 that his locker-room rant was “a result of me being myself” amid years of frustration building up.
Kicker Cairo Santos said he didn’t think Johnson’s words were disrespectful or personal. Williams also said he understood Johnson’s outburst to a certain extent.
“You understand that he’s frustrated,” Williams said. “He’s been here a while. The playoffs and record and things like that haven’t been where he’s wanted to be. And that’s all coming.
“We’ve got to understand that and see the light at the end of the tunnel. But right now, it’s kind of dark. Six games so far and we haven’t won, but we’re really close. I’m really excited about that.”
Other players spoke in a similar tone after the first practice under Brown. They expressed hope that they can find a new spark — and some wins — in the final month of the season, starting with Sunday’s road game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Left guard Teven Jenkins, who played all three seasons under Eberflus, said he felt a different vibe in practice under Brown. He said Brown has emphasized taking game-like reps in practice so players get on and off the field in time, small changes that help “make a difference in the mental preparation.”
“I feel like there’s been big changes to our emphasis in how we attack every day,” Jenkins said. “It’s about getting back to who we are as a team and trying to eliminate what happened these past few weeks.
“Even what (Brown) was saying, we have a talented team, but you get your skill set every day and you work on it. Everybody has talent in the NFL. It’s about what you do with your skills.”
Jenkins said he found out that Eberflus was being fired on social media Friday, and 10 minutes later he received a phone call from offensive line coach Chris Morgan sharing the news.
Brown said he later called every player on the team individually to express his anticipation for the team’s growth together and his need for the players to respond the right way.
Jenkins was asked Wednesday if the move from Eberflus to Brown was a “welcome change.”
“I love Flus,” Jenkins said. “But I feel like the first point you just said, it was very accurate.”
Brown has had only a couple of days to address the team as a whole, but Santos said Brown’s voice Monday in the first team meeting after Eberflus was fired brought a spark to players who hadn’t heard him speak much before.
Edwards said Brown has kept his message direct and clear about how he wants to operate.
“He’s done a good job since the start of the week just setting his expectations for what he wants to get done,” Edwards said. “Being a man of action and getting right to the point and making sure we’re all on the same page with what we’re trying to do. And then going out there to execute.”
That’s how Edwards said the Bears need to operate in yet another chaotic week at Halas Hall — by focusing on the task ahead.
“Obviously we’re human. It affects you,” Edwards said of the change. “But at the end of the day, you come in here and get right back to work.
“You wish (Eberflus) well and you can cross paths again — you never know — but we’ve got a job to do. We’ve got to keep our focus on the main thing and find a way to win.”
