The Caleb Williams era in Chicago didn't get off to a good start in 2024.
Despite drafting the next up-and-coming young quarterback out of USC, the Chicago Bears managed just five wins, not making it through the full season before firing their head coach and offensive coordinator.
Shane Waldron was the first of the Bears' sweeping coaching changes, but a few weeks later, head coach Matt Eberflus followed. Now the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, Eberflus never quite got the Bears to reverse their annual struggles; from timeout management issues to Williams taking tons of sacks, Chicago sent Eberflus packing early for a variety of reasons.
Here's a breakdown of Eberflus' time with the Bears, including his record and why the team fired him in November 2024.
MORE: Ranking the 17 greatest Bears players of all time
Matt Eberflus coaching record with Bears
- 14-32 (three seasons)
Eberflus was hired by the Bears in January 2022, the team's replacement for Matt Nagy. Chicago was coming off a 6-11 season at the time.
However, Eberflus' time in Chicago didn't go any better than Nagy's — in fact, it was worse. While the Bears made the playoffs in two of Nagy's four seasons, they failed to do so once under Eberflus.
Chicago won three games in 2022 and seven games in 2023, both seasons in which Justin Fields was the starting quarterback. In 2024, the Bears decided they had enough of Eberflus' tenure just after Thanksgiving.
When Eberflus was fired by the Bears, it marked the end of a stint in which he led the team to two-straight last-place finishes in the NFC North (and a third after he was fired in 2024) and had just a .304 winning percentage.
Eberflus' stint in Chicago was his first experience as an NFL head coach.
| Year | Record | Result |
| 2022 | 3-14 | Missed playoffs (4th in NFC North) |
| 2023 | 7-10 | Missed playoffs (4th in NFC North) |
| 2024 | 4-8 | Missed playoffs (Eberflus fired before end of season) |
MORE: Who is on the Mount Rushmore of Chicago sports?
Why did Bears fire Matt Eberflus
The Bears' decision to fire Eberflus on Nov. 29, 2024, was the team's first-ever head coach firing during the middle of a season. So, there were surely a few reasons for the decision. Here's a few:
Late-game issues, timeout management
Perhaps the most prominent struggles for the Bears' 2024 season under Eberflus was the team's repeated struggles in the fourth quarter, from blown leads to clock management.
The most famous example was Chicago's matchup against the Washington Commanders, when Williams' fellow rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, pulled off a Hail Mary pass to beat the Bears 20-19.
MORE: Inside Uber Eats' Da Bears ad for Super Bowl 59 featuring Mike Ditka
On the final play, the Bears' defensive front struggled to get to Daniels, allowing him to throw a deep ball that was tipped up in the air right to Noah Brown, who was completely uncovered in the end zone.
A;FK;JD;KJF;LAKEJFLKJVAL;KEJL;JF;EFJ;LFAKJ
— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
JAYDEN DANIELS HAIL MARY! @COMMANDERS WIN! pic.twitter.com/BsQ0Z84Rko
Initially, that loss could be chalked up to bad luck. But as time passed, more clutch struggles followed for a Bears team that had the talent to contend for a playoff spot.
In November, the Bears had a 45-yard field goal set up to beat the Green Bay Packers. Instead, the kick was blocked, resulting in another late loss.
PACKERS BLOCK THE FIELD GOAL FOR THE WIN.#GBvsCHI pic.twitter.com/gq8zbz965C
— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
The following week, the Bears lost 30-27 to the Minnesota Vikings in overtime. Then, the final straw for Eberflus came on Thanksgiving.
The Bears were down 23-20 to the Detroit Lions with possession and one timeout remaining. As they approached the red zone for a potential game-winning or tying score, Williams was sacked. But Eberflus didn't use his timeout, leaving his team to scramble to get back on the line for a 3rd & 26 play that came with just a few seconds remaining.
MORE: Classic film 'Brian's Song' serves as fitting eulogy to both Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers
Had Eberflus called time out, the Bears would have been able to attempt a field goal for the tie or draw up a better play up for another game-winner attempt. It was Eberflus' last game with the Bears.
Matt Eberflus forgets he has a timeout and the Lions win,
— will: Riley Greene Truther (@wrhiv_72) November 29, 2024
called by @DanMillerFox2, Lomas Brown, and TJ Lang from the Lions Radio Network: pic.twitter.com/CO8MspCjkG
The fact that no timeout was called "raised questions among the front office and coaching staff over in-game management," sources later told ESPN, with Williams saying he didn't yet feel comfortable calling the timeout in that situation.
"Our decision at that point was to be on the ball, hold our timeout and get the play off at 15 to 10 seconds, in that range, throw it into field goal range there and then call a timeout and then kick the game[-tying field goal] on fourth down," Eberflus said later, per ESPN. "The operation wasn't fast enough, and we didn't do a good job of executing there in that moment."
Eberflus' 5-19 record in one-score games was the worst in NFL history for a coach with at least 20 such games, according to ESPN.
MORE: Bears legend Dick Butkus goes viral with hilarious Twitter takeover
Six-game losing streak, losing the locker room
On the note of Chicago's loss to Detroit, that was the team's sixth consecutive loss after a 4-2 start. The Bears had enough talent to contend for a playoff spot, which they proved in the early season. But the collapse sent the team right back to NFL purgatory.
The Bears' frustrations were evident during the losing streak. According to ESPN, during Eberflus' postgame address to his team after the Lions loss, cornerback Jaylon Johnson "interrupted his head coach and began shouting obscenities out of frustration from the same results playing out over and over."
"Part of what I said after the game was I've been losing for five years," Johnson said on WSCR, per ESPN. "I feel like a high-level player like myself, after a certain point, losing games how we've been losing games, somebody has to express something. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and it went the way it went."
Tight end Cole Kmet also said that "coach is going to say what he's going to say," and "at the end of the day, we all realize we want the results. We just haven't had the results. That falls upon everybody."
Repetitive losses in close games were becoming a clear mental issue for the Bears, and there were players clearly growing frustrated.
MORE: Most NFL Draft picks by a school in one year
Caleb Williams' struggles, record amount of sacks
When Williams was drafted first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Bears weren't just eyeing the long-term future of their franchise. They believed he could step in immediately and lead a playoff team, as evidenced by their decision to then trade Fields to Pittsburgh.
Statistically, Williams' rookie season was by no means bad (3,541 passing yards, 20 touchdowns, six interceptions), and there have been plenty of Hall of Fame quarterback careers that started off worse.
But for one, Daniels' dominance as a rookie in Washington made for a rough comparison already, looking like the better young quarterback. And secondly, Williams was getting mauled in every single Bears game, both due to his own struggles and his offensive line's.
Williams became the most-sacked rookie quarterback in NFL history, taking 68 total hits for a loss. That's also tied for third-most of all time, trailing only Randall Cunningham in 1986 (72) and David Carr in 2002 (76).
Those types of major issues typically fall on the person in charge, which was Eberflus. There was no improvement in Williams taking tons of sacks throughout the season, no improvements from the offensive line, etc.
There were also some reported issues between Eberflus and Williams, with one piece of evidence being the Packers game when Williams had to scream to his coach to go for a fourth down.
Never forget the time Caleb Williams had to YELL at Matt Eberflus to go for it on 4th down against the Packers. 😳
— Bearsszn (@bearssznn) May 15, 2025
A QB with a killer instinct paired with a coach who was scared of taking risks. Never was going to work. pic.twitter.com/oRCXqVLyGS
Williams also told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2025 that how Eberflus handled the Hail Mary loss to Washington "annoyed" some players in the locker room, per NBC Sports.
MORE: The 10 most shocking NFL Draft slides of all time
Lack of defensive improvement
Offensive struggles were more prominent, but with Eberflus being a defensive-minded coach, there was also never a point where his Bears could quite be considered an elite defensive team.
The closest thing to that was 2023, when Chicago ranked 12th in the NFL in total yards allowed, including first in rushing yards allowed, as well as second in interceptions. But in 2024, all of those numbers fell.
In Eberflus' last season, Chicago allowed the sixth-most total yards in the league, including the fifth-most rushing yards. Despite some talented pieces like Jaylon Johnson, Kevin Byard and Montez Sweat, the Bears regressed defensively under Eberflus.
MORE: Can Baker Mayfield be considered "elite" with continued success?
Annual shortcomings in playoff contention
Overall, Eberflus' firing, like many in the NFL, was about failing to meet playoff expectations. A rough 2022 season was excusable for Eberflus' first season, but he never established Chicago as a serious contender in the NFC North.
When he fielded his best roster yet in 2024, the Bears crumbled when it matter most. Perhaps if the team had won a few more of those one-score games, it wouldn't have fired Eberflus and replaced him with Ben Johnson.
But "what ifs" are "what ifs" for a reason, and the Bears decided to move on from Eberflus with the hopes of a new era behind Johnson and Williams.
MORE: Ranking the most iconic NFL Draft outfits in history