Matt Eberflus doesn’t tend to the hive on his 5-acre property in Lake Bluff but he gives his beekeeper whatever he wants. He built a fence on the northern end of his land to break the winter wind and trimmed tree branches to let more sunlight shine on the hive. The resulting clover honey is so addictive that chairman George McCaskey goes through four bottles a year.
Eberflus’ deputy role, though, ends at his property line.
In his day job, the Bears head coach will be judged by how well his offense performs and how rookie quarterback Caleb Williams develops — even though he’s not the one calling the plays.
That’s why it was so important for Eberflus to recruit former Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in January. Shortly after the end of their exhausting 7-10 season, Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles took a private plane around the country, interviewing nine offensive coordinator candidates for about six hours apiece. Eberflus brought cut-ups of their film and quizzed coaches about past plays. He posed hypothetical questions, focusing on the answers but also how well they were explained. He recorded each interview.
The Bears’ candidate list was so thorough, Eberflus said, that once they picked Waldron, each of the other eight candidates got jobs as offensive coordinators or pass-game coordinators.
Eberflus never told the candidates the Bears were going to draft Williams.
He didn’t have to.
“They had a pretty good idea,” Eberflus told the Sun-Times. “We had the No. 1 pick. Everybody talked about Caleb. The way they talked about him — ‘What a talent.’”
That only reinforced what the Bears had already learned about Williams, who makes his debut Sunday against the Titans.
“He and I are starting off on the level floor and building a foundation … ” Eberflus said. “He’s going to develop more in the first year than he’s ever developed.”
The same needs to be said about Eberflus. He rallied from a 14-game losing streak and the departures of coaches Alan Williams and David Walker to keep his job. Turn one of his 10 career wins into a loss, and Eberflus would have the worst winning percentage of any coach in franchise history.
Eberflus has always believed that if he coached players the right way good results would follow. This is the year they come due.
He stressed successful habits — effort, intensity, learning and protecting the football — when the Bears were at their lowest. He remains an unknown commodity, though, with a roster built to win.
Eberflus has been more involved with Williams than he was with Justin Fields, whom the coach said got a “fair shot” in their two seasons together. Eberflus stands behind Williams during drills more often. In meetings, he explains to the rookie what the defense is trying to do to him, in terms of coverage and disguises, as part of what he calls Williams’ “dual education.” The Bears studied how the Heisman Trophy winner learns — he prefers to know the overarching idea before the tiny details — and Eberflus makes sure that’s how he’s taught.
“He’s got a good way about him,” Eberflus said. “He loves to learn and he loves to learn through experience. But he’s also a competitor, and he doesn’t want to make that same mistake he made. He wants to keep doing right.”
The Bears bucked NFL trends two years ago by hiring a defensive-minded head coach. Eberflus quickly — probably too quickly — paired up with Luke Getsy, a first first-time offensive coordinator who came from a system Eberflus admired. They didn’t know each other well but shared an agent.
In January, Eberflus wanted to replace Getsy with a play-caller who had more experience. The urgency became even greater when it was clear Eberflus would remain the defensive play-caller.
Landing Williams and Waldron were Eberflus’ biggest wins this offseason. Now he needs the real wins to come.