After a catastrophic 5-12 season, the Chicago Bears must take drastic steps before the 2025-26 season.
Like any sport, a team’s losing record cannot often be pinned on one player or coach.
In this case, you cannot blame the Bears’ season on rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
He has grown exponentially as a player despite a nine-game losing streak.
“Keep swinging,” interim head coach Thomas Brown said of Williams’ approach. “Shooters shoot, and he definitely shoots, which I appreciate. So I’m going to give him opportunities to shoot.”
Through 15 games, Williams threw for 3,541 yards, fifth most in a single season in franchise history, under Erik Kramer (1994-1998) and Jay Cutler (2010-2016.) Unfortunately, and more indicative of his team’s record, FOX Sports reported he was sacked a franchise-record and league-leading 68 times.
According to NFL Research, Williams has lost nine starts without throwing an interception, the most such losses in a single season since 1950. His 326 passes without turning the ball over are 100 attempts more than the previous rookie streak held by the Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray (211).
In addition to this impressive streak, he only threw six interceptions on 562 passing attempts this season, giving him an impressively low interception rate of 1.1%.
The Bears are still the only NFL franchise without a 4,000-yard passer or a QB who passed for 30 touchdowns, but at this point, we’re looking for progress, not perfection.
Although you cannot usually pin a team’s record on one person, in this case, it would be completely reasonable to pin it on now-former-offensive coordinator and head coach Matt Eberflus, who the Bears fired in the middle of the season following a brutal Dec. 8 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Eberflus failed to call timeout with 32 seconds remaining and the Bears faced a third-and-26 at the Lions’ 41 and did not convert.
The Bears seemed to find increasingly creative ways to lose games, such as a tipped Hail Mary pass against the Washington Commanders, a blocked field goal against the Green Bay Packers and a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
According to ESPN, Eberflus ended with a record of 14-32, including 5-19 in one-score games, the worst record of any coach with at least 20 games in NFL history.
He was then replaced by Brown, who coached at the University of Georgia, Chattanooga, Marshall, the University of Wisconsin, Miami (FL) and South Carolina from 2011 to 2019. He mainly served as the running backs coach until his 2016 stop at Miami (FL), where he became the offensive coordinator and running backs coach.
Brown then coached the LA Rams under Sean McVay for three seasons before heading to the Carolina Panthers in 2023, eventually landing with the Bears.
On Jan. 20 the Bears confirmed former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their new head coach. Sports Illustrated reported he was “considered the top coaching candidate in 2023 before deciding to return to Detroit this season, and after coaching the Lions offense to the highest-scoring unit in the NFL again in 2024, his stock was at an all-time high.”
Johnson has spent this last season working with Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who threw for 4,629 yards and a career-high 37 touchdowns this past season. Say what you will about Goff’s Jan. 18 performance against the Washington Commanders, but overall he had a rather remarkable season.
With a new head coach, the removal of Eberflus and a competitive-looking 2025-26 schedule, let’s hope the Bears can get Chicago’s respect back.
