In hiring Matt Eberflus on Thursday, the Chicago Bears did something both simple and profound; a course correction we won’t pay that much attention to during the flurry of news this coaching cycle but should.
Eberflus is not going to register as a sexy choice, though we’ll get to why this was a home run hire in a bit. But first, let’s acknowledge the obvious. Eberflus is a defensive coordinator. He played linebacker in college under Nick Saban, coached linebackers, outside linebackers, defensive backs and eventually coordinated defenses at the NFL level. Unless there is some kind of completely nonsensical position shift on the horizon, there isn’t any way to sell this hire as some direct attempt at rescuing Justin Fields.