Two days before the Chicago Bears experienced their 10th consecutive loss and Cole Kmet experienced his 55th defeat in five seasons, the veteran tight end considered a few bigger-picture questions.
What now? And what next?
More specifically, as the Bears embark on yet another coaching search to begin 2025, what exactly does Kmet want from the next leader of the team?
What qualities can stabilize and energize this frustrated locker room?
“We need a culture shift for sure,” Kmet said without hesitating. “And I know a lot of people get caught up in wanting this hot name or that hot name. But I would hope that management upstairs would just be looking for the best possible head coach.”
That coach, Kmet believes, should have an immediate understanding of how to raise the bar inside Halas Hall, how to establish standards and expectations and make certain everyone involved upholds them.
No questions asked. No wiggle room allowed.
“It’s about command over the locker room,” Kmet added. “It’s setting a line, then finding the guys who will hold that line and then depending on those guys who are holding the line to establish (an environment) where everyone else falls in line.
“But you want that line to be set first by the head coach. Then you find the players in the locker room who will uphold that.”
Kmet knows he might be in the minority, but he has zero preference about which side of the ball the next Bears coach has his expertise in.
“That’s where you get into the question of do you care about winning or do you care about winning a certain way,” Kmet said. “That’s a question they’ll have to ask themselves (in the front office). Do we care how it looks when we win? Is the win itself the most important end result? Or does the quarterback need to throw for 350 (yards) and win?”
Kmet paused and took a moment to elaborate.
“Look,” he said, “I’ll openly emphasize that the quarterback is the most important position in our sport. And we have to get that going in the right direction obviously. But at the end of the day, we need to bring in a winner and a coach who’s going to bring in a winning culture where nothing less than winning is acceptable.
“It’s winning at all costs. By any means necessary. You can’t fall into the trap of searching for positives when you lose 34-17. No. That’s not a thing for me. Maybe that’s an approach some people subscribe to, but I don’t think that is a winning attitude or creates a winning way.”
Kmet’s stance is just one player’s perspective on what should happen at Halas Hall as the Bears embark on their fifth coaching search since 2011. But fellow captains echo many of his opinions.
Safety Kevin Byard, for example, sees an opportunity for the Bears to unite with a new leader who can create energy and direction.
“I’ve always believed a great head coach operates more like the CEO of the organization,” Byard said. “At the end of the day, this isn’t about scheme. Everybody has great scheme. It’s more about the little things you have to establish as a head coach.
“There are certain things you just can’t let slide. And personally, I think we have had a lot of things happen here this year that have been let go too easily.”
‘No gray area’
Accountability has been a buzzword at Halas Hall over the last four months.
Players have called for much more of it from the top down, repeatedly dropping bread crumbs that lead outsiders to conclude the team’s losing ways this season resulted, in part, from too many bad habits or sloppy mistakes that weren’t properly corrected under the watch of former coach Matt Eberflus, who was fired in late November.
That kind of malady might require substantial time and attention to cure.
“You address mistakes on the spot,” Byard said. “Like, if you have children and they step out of line, you address it on the spot. If you don’t address it and think you’re going to get changed behavior, good luck. And for us, I think there were little mistakes that would happen and wouldn’t be addressed properly.”
Asked specifically this week what proper accountability looks like, cornerback Kyler Gordon offered the following: “I would say it’s just knowing individually that everyone can hold you accountable in knowing you’re going to do your job. (It’s knowing) that we can depend on you. And I feel like that starts with discipline, knowing that if you’re disciplined the right way and the whole entire team is disciplined the right way, there is no other choice but to do the right thing every single time.
“There is no second-guessing. This is the way we do it. This our style. And there is no in between, no gray area.”
Add those sentiments to a bloated 2024 file of player feedback, and the Bears should have a ready-made PowerPoint presentation to review as their coaching search intensifies.
Don’t forget the early November comments from wide receiver Keenan Allen. A day after offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired, Allen identified Waldron’s leniency as one of his most problematic shortcomings.
“Too nice of a guy,” Allen said, later adding: “I think (during organized team activities) and training camp, he kind of fell into a trap of letting things go, not holding people accountable. Obviously those things lead to a slippery slope.”
Eight weeks earlier, 40-year-old tight end Marcedes Lewis expressed directly to the coaches that they didn’t need to be walking on eggshells or coaching with a Pop Warner tone.
“This is not for play. This is our job,” Lewis said then. “We all understand that. It’s a highly stressful, production-based business. And we’ve all got to be doing the same things or everybody gets fired. Ego is supposed to be left at the door. That’s what it’s about.”
That was back when the Bears were 1-2, before Waldron or Eberflus was fired, before the entire season tripped out of the open airplane door without a reliable parachute.
‘From the top’
At this point, the cries for help from players are loud and honest.
“Accountability,” Byard said, “has to be set from the top.”
Asked Wednesday what matters most to him in a head coach, quarterback Caleb Williams was direct in saying he wants a leader who will challenge him.
“Whether it’s on the field or character (topics), it doesn’t matter,” Williams said. “Just a coach who challenges us. A man of his word. A discipline coach. Meaning whatever his rules are, he’s going to manage and control the team.”
Linebacker T.J. Edwards hopes, at the very least, a new coach will set a new tone.
“From my standpoint, a coach can set your culture in a way,” he said. “But I also think that’s a player-driven thing. It’s your locker room that makes the culture. So I think for us, this will all reset when we get back for OTAs and we’ll see where we’re headed.”
Edwards also hopes every player who’s a part of the 2025 Bears will look inward and take whatever new standards a new coach establishes and fight to meet them.
“That’s a real thing,” he said. “And that comes back to each individual in a way. This is professional football. If we can’t count on you to understand your responsibilities and be where you’re supposed to be, or maybe if you don’t understand what’s being asked, then you have to ask those questions so we can all get on the same page and we can roll.
“To me, that comes back to us as players enforcing that too.”
First, though, the Bears must find their new coach and establish a winning fit. That won’t be easy.
