Is Thomas Brown a legitimate candidate to be the Bears’ next head coach?

Any time a coach draws comparisons to Mike Tomlin, you have to pay attention. But you also have to be careful with such notions in Chicago, where the bar for offensive coaches is so low that anyone who has any success shines a little brighter than anywhere else.

In 1999, first-year offensive coordinator Gary Crowton’s screen-heavy passing offense so captivated Bears fans that it didn’t matter that the Bears finished 25th in total yards despite jumping from 21st to eighth . place. In the eyes of some observers – or at least one – the Bears couldn’t let Crowton get away with it, even if they had to promote him to head coach and kick Dick Jauron to the curb.

But 13 games into the 2000 season, Crowton was gone. While his offense declined – he averaged just 13 points per game, 28th in the NFL – Crowton left the head coaching position at BYU with three games to go. And Bears fans, probably many of those who were afraid of losing him a few months earlier, couldn’t wait to see him go.

That’s how it is here. In 2015, Adam Gase moved from one year as the Bears’ offensive coordinator to the Dolphins’ head coaching position after quarterback Jay Cutler posted a career-best pass percentage of 92.3. It doesn’t matter that Gase’s offense finished 25th in scoring (as it did the previous season). Or that Cutler’s passer rating was still only 16th.

In 2022, when Luke Getsy’s offense scored 29 or more points in four straight games, fans again wondered how long the Bears could keep Getsy when reporters asked coach Matt Eberflus about Getsy’s potential as a head coach. But after the Bears averaged 14.2 points over their last six games, excitement turned to doubt. A year later, after quarterback
Justin Fields and the offense stagnated and Getsy was fired.

Brown is next in line, and he already has impressive credentials. In two games as coordinator, he has breathed life into the offense and turned Caleb Williams back into the franchise quarterback prospect he is supposed to be. And he didn’t do it against the Panthers and Jaguars, but against two of the NFL’s better defenses, the Packers (10th in scoring, 12th in yards) and the Vikings (fourth in scoring, 10th in yards).

But it’s the respect he shows the players that makes Brown an interesting coaching candidate. The advantage of not being Shane Waldron is a great start. But more than that, Bears players have a belief in Brown that they didn’t have in Waldron.

And perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but Brown has a Tomlin-like presence – a no-nonsense, confident, direct approach that exudes leadership qualities.

Whether Brown actually has that quality remains to be seen. The catch is that there is no one in Halas Hall who has shown the intuition to recognize this “it” factor.

On the contrary, general manager Ryan Poles reportedly spoke with Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell in 2022 and then hired Eberflus less than 48 hours after he was hired. Eberflus reportedly interviewed two candidates for the offensive coordinator position and quickly hired Getsy.

When Getsy was fired, Eberflus and Poles interviewed Kliff Kingsbury, Klint Kubiak, Zac Robinson and Brown, among others, and hired Waldron. Knowing he would have a rookie quarterback in 2024, Poles turned down the opportunity to hire an offensive line coach and made a decisive bet on Eberflus.

So the question the Bears will soon face again isn’t just, “Can they find the right guy?” It’s whether they’ll even recognize him when they see him.

Over and over again

2. This is an age-old problem at Halas Hall that starts at the top. In 2012, the Bears hired Phil Emery as GM in place of Jason Licht, now GM of the Super Bowl-winning Buccaneers. Both the Bears and Chiefs fired their head coach at the end of that season. Four days later, the Chiefs hired Andy Reid. It took Emery 16 days to hire Marc Trestman – opposite Bruce Arians, who became the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl-winning coach. He was hired by. . . Jason Light.

And again

3. This is how one thing leads to another when a team goes south.

Eberflus on why he challenged Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison’s 69-yard catch that ultimately cost him a timeout: “I threw the challenge flag because it was an explosive (play).”

Williams on the Bears’ fourth-and-4 confusion against the Vikings’ 27 on the ensuing possession: “You’re obviously not going to use another timeout because you know the game is going to be close at the end. We have already used one.”

Just not ready

4. The fourth-and-4 confusion – Williams rushed to beat the game clock and threw an incomplete pass to Keenan Allen – is Exhibit A in the case against Eberflus, not only because of the obvious lack of preparation at a critical moment, but because it is the second time that Eberflus is clearly caught unprepared.

It also happened in Week 3 against the Colts, when the Bears had to call a timeout to engineer a two-point conversion in an apparent two-point conversion situation, down 14-9 after Williams’ one-yard pass to Rome Odunze with 8:21 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Bad technology?

5. Unfortunately, this is one of many mistakes that were repeated in Eberflus’ third season as coach. Early in the Vikings game, the Bears were embarrassed by a blocked field goal for the second straight game.

And perhaps the biggest criticism of Eberflus is his repeated use of “technique” and “details” as reasons for errors in execution, including on Monday when he addressed the blocked field goal and the defense’s regression last month. That’s all Eberflus has at this point. But acknowledging such fundamental, fundamental problems in week 12 of third grade is self-incriminating.

Complete streak

6. Williams hasn’t thrown an interception in five straight starts. Only Jim McMahon (seven starts in 1984) and Kyle Orton (six in 2008) had longer streaks.

Williams’ 193 pass completion streak without an interception is the longest since Brian Hoyer failed to throw an interception on 200 passes in just six games (five starts) with the Bears in 2016.

Orton holds the franchise record with 205 consecutive passes without an interception in 2008.

Line continuity

7. The offensive line of Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, Matt Pryor and Darnell Wright played all 76 snaps against the Vikings, only the third time in 11 games the Bears line has done so.

In fact, this line has undergone 16 in-game changes this season. The 10-1 Lions, meanwhile, made their first lineup change of the season on Sunday when left tackle Taylor Decker missed 14 games with knee and ankle injuries but returned to finish the game against the Colts.

Continuity makes a difference. The Lions’ starting offense of Decker, Graham Glasgow, Frank Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler and Penei Sewell has played 92.1% of the offensive snaps this season. The Bears’ most frequent lineup played 83.8% of offensive snaps.

Not on target

8. The Bears’ Cairo Santos is the first kicker since the Browns’ Travis Coons in 2015 (47 and 42 yards) to have blocks on consecutive field goal attempts of less than 50 yards. Santos is also the last Chiefs kicker with a blocked kick of less than 50 yards – a 27-yarder that Pernell McPhee blocked in an 18-17 loss to the Bears at Arrowhead Stadium in 2017.

At the destination

9. Josh McCown Former Bears Player of the Week: Panthers placekicker Eddy Pineiro went 4-for-4 on field goal attempts in Sunday’s 30-27 loss to the Chiefs. Pineiro has made 16 of 17 field goals this season (94.1%). His only miss was a 45-yarder against the Bears.

Pineiro is the NFL’s all-time career passing percentage leader (89.7%, 105-for-117) and has made 91 of his last 98 attempts (92.9%), including his last 11 with the Bears in 2019.

Six more

10. Bear Knife – 5-12: at Lions (L); at 49ers (L); at Vikings (L); vs. Lions (L); vs. Seahawks (F); at Packers (left).