Greenberg: Will Matt Eberflus be a name for Bears fans to remember? Or one to forget? -

Eberflus.

It’s a fun name to say, isn’t it? It’s the kind of name that David Letterman would’ve used as a non sequitur.

“Hey Paul, you know that guy Matt Eberflus?”

“Ha-ha! Eberflus, yeah.”

It’s a name built for Chicago sports radio in all of its linguistic glory.

The first post-Eberflus-hire caller on @670TheScore says the new coach of the Bears will be known as "Eber-lose, because that's all he's gonna do." 🙃 pic.twitter.com/W07LUDaYhS

— Ryan Porth (@Porth670) January 27, 2022

On name alone, I judge this hire a success. *Bangs gavel*

Now, what about the important stuff?

On Monday, the Bears didn’t have a GM or a head coach and now, on Thursday, they have both.

If this works out, Bill Polian might have another bestseller on his hands: “How to Build a Super Bowl Champion In a Week or Less.”

Just two days after signing his Bears contract and one day after dramatically walking out of his car at Halas Hall, new GM Ryan (Poles) found his head coach Matt (Eberflus).

Top-level sources tell me that at 99 years old, Virginia McCaskey simply didn’t want to learn any new names, so there were limited choices to replace Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy. Chairman George McCaskey can continue to say, “Matt and Ryan are our football guys” when someone asks what president Ted Phillips is still doing here.

And now, with their Ryan and Matt in place, we prepare for the onslaught of positive reviews and complimentary anecdotes.

For instance, did you know that as the defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, Eberflus preached practicing hard, and then when the games came around, he was big on tackling? Incredible stuff. I’m feeling lightheaded. Must be a case of the Eber-flu. He prides himself on the high standards he holds his players to.

“It’s not for everybody, because everybody doesn’t want to put out the effort it takes to play in this system,” Eberflus told The Athletic’s Zak Keefer in a November 2020 profile. “But that’s OK. They can go play somewhere else.”

That’s the kind of bluster that Bears fans — now known as “Da Eber Floozies” — can get behind. Freed from the dome in Indianapolis, just imagine how Eberflus’ defense can flourish in Bears weather. If Eberflus doesn’t tip his hat to Buddy Ryan and the ’85 Bears at his opening news conference, I’ll be shocked.

My early headline for this coach? “Hardass with a Heart of Gold.”

Eberflus, 51, was one of the three coaches on the organization’s shortlist before Poles was officially hired as the new GM on Tuesday. Eberflus was apparently on Poles’ list as well, given he hired him on his second full day at work.

On one hand, I’m not sure what the rush was to hire a head coach. There’s value in patience when it comes to these searches. Successful coaches have been hired later in the cycle.

But on the other hand, Eberflus needs to be able to hire an offensive coordinator and other assistants, and that market heats up at the Senior Bowl next week. Hiring a coordinator for quarterback Justin Fields is now the top priority at Halas Hall and you can argue — you have my permission — that it’s a more important job than head coach because of Fields and where he is in his maturation process.

Eberflus is confident in his defensive philosophy, and he has more experience running a defense than Nagy did an offense, so I’m not worried about that side of the ball.

The Colts’ defense was stout in his four-year tenure. And this season, though their yardage allowed went up, they were second in the NFL with 33 takeaways, which gave the Colts a plus-14 turnover margin, which tied for the best in football and almost took them to the playoffs.

I had no issue with the Bears going with a defensive coach, even though the pattern of offense-defense-offense-defense since the firing of Lovie Smith makes you think the Bears brass are simply going opposite with every hire.

A head coach should be a delegator-in-chief, tone-setter and the ultimate boss. He should be feared (just ask Bears players about getting called to Lovie’s office) and respected (think Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh), inspiring (Bruce Arians) and cunning (Bill Belichick).

“I would say this, what NFL teams need is leadership,” Eberflus said to Keefer. “And that’s what a head coach provides. It’s about conviction in your beliefs and your systems.”

I’m curious to see how Eberflus comports himself. Everyone who works in this industry knows of assistant coaches who get delusions of grandeur when they get the big office. Eberflus, who actually turned down a contract extension in Dallas to explore the open market, has never been shy about his goal of becoming a head coach. He must be one of those “speaking it into existence” guys. Nagy believed in his system, too, and it wound up costing him and Pace their jobs.

With no track record as a head coach, Eberflus has something to prove. And how he assembles his staff is the first step. I’m guessing if Eberflus didn’t have an answer to the offensive coordinator question, he wouldn’t have gotten the job. We don’t know how competent Poles is as a GM just yet, but he’s an old offensive lineman, so he should know that side of the ball.

None of this is brain surgery. Poles and Eberflus need to surround themselves with smart people and good players. How you judge who is smart and who is good is what separates perennial playoff teams from teams like the Bears.

The Bears have failed to hire the right people for years and it cost the franchise most of a decade.

Eberflus has worked his way up the coaching ladder in a traditional manner that has given him his first head coaching job in his early 50s. He’s an Ohio guy and a Mid-American Conference guy (Toledo Whitmer High and the University of Toledo), so I trust him already. Eberflus has a commendable coaching pedigree, working with some successful coaches in Dallas and Indianapolis, and has had enough success in his brief spin as a coordinator to get this gig. His reward for his journey is reaching Lake Forest, Ill., and coaching one of the premier organizations in professional sports — if in name only.

Will he be Defensive Matt Nagy, just a guy with a headset and a Denny’s menu, or the second coming of Lovie Smith? Maybe he’ll be neither. Maybe this is the coaching hire the Bears get right. And maybe Matt Eberflus is a name Chicago will remember for decades to come.

(Photo: Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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