The Chicago Bears are a team in disarray after suffering another embarrassing defeat in Week 3 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Head coach Matt Eberflus has seen his offense sputter and his defense get shredded week in and week out, which could lead the Bears to fire him and move in a different direction soon.

Here are three reasons why the Bears should fire Matt Eberflus and begin a new era with a different head coach.

 

1. Unable to maximize Justin Fields' talents

Forget everything else — this is the issue that really matters. Justin Fields is one of the most athletic quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen. His rushing ability is what makes him such a dangerous quarterback, and it seemed like the Bears and Eberflus figured that out late last season. But instead of doubling down on what began to work last year, with designed runs, RPO action, and moving pockets, the Bears went into the season and treated Fields like Eli Manning instead of Jalen Hurts, dropping him back and having him go through multiple progressions behind a crumbling offensive line.

The stubbornness and lack of creativity to maximize Fields' mobility and deep-ball talent is hard to explain. The Bears seem insistent on making Fields do the things he's the worst at, and it's telling that Fields finally mentioned in the media that coaching is making him play robotic instead of intuitively.

The inability to adjust the playbook when Fields is clearly struggling is alarming, and at this point the damage and loss of trust has been done. Fields is a potential franchise quarterback, but he needs a fresh start and a more open, creative coaching staff to unleash some of his natural abilities and mask his inefficiencies. Eberflus and his staff have proven over a substantial sample size that they won't be the ones to do it.

 

2. New additions are underperforming

The Bears have some talent on both sides of the football, but just about every acquisition by GM Ryan Poles is underperforming based on what they've done in the past. While Eberflus shouldn't face all the responsibility for some of the poor moves Poles has made (trading the 32nd overall pick for Chase Claypool is criminal), it's telling that nearly every signing and acquisition has failed to meet expectations.

The lack of fight throughout the roster is concerning, though. While it's understandable the team would be crushed by losing in Week 1 at home to the Green Bay Packers yet again, the inability to rebound with better efforts in subsequent weeks is troubling this early in the season. While no one reasonably expected the Bears to march into Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs, not getting down five touchdowns in the first half is a pretty low bar to hit.

Defensive coordinator Alan Williams and his resignation is a whole different can of worms, but it's hard to pretend that everything isn't crumbling around Eberflus at this moment. The coaching staff has major issues, the players appear to be losing trust, and the results on the field are a mess.

 

3. Historically bad results through 20 games

You are what your record says you are. Matt Eberflus got a pass last year for coaching a torn-down roster, but the Bears were talented enough heading into this season to be projected by Las Vegas to win around 8 games. The Bears are now 0-3 with a -59 point differential and just 445 passing yards on the season after being dead last in the NFL in that category last season. Fields is far from blameless, but when it comes down to the player or coach, it's usually the coach who goes.

At 3-17 as head coach of the Bears, only four coaches in NFL history have a worse winning percentage than Matt Eberflus with a minimum of 20 games coached. Even Hue Jackson with the Browns (.205) ended with a higher winning percentage. If the Bears lose at home next week to a Denver Broncos team that just got beat by 50 points, it's going to be awfully hard for Chicago's ownership not to face the music and move on from Eberflus and his staff.

It's never easy to vouch for a coach to get fired, but the Bears need to see Fields with a different coach, in a different offense, with a fresh approach in order to figure out whether he can be the franchise quarterback moving forward. Any further prolonging of that is getting harder and harder to justify in Chicago.