We've officially reached a point in the NFL season that fans of the Chicago Bears have gotten to be all too familiar with — hoping and praying that a new head coach will soon be on the way. It happened with Marc Trestman. It happened with John Fox. It happened with Matt Nagy. And oh-so-predictably, it's now happened — for the second consecutive year — with Matt Eberflus.
This time around, Bears fans have one particular successor in mind… Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Johnson is crafting one of the league's most entertaining and productive offenses in the Motor City. It doesn't help Eberflus' cause that just a week ago, there were reports that Johnson opted to hop off the coaching carousel last year because he was holding out for whenever the Bears job became available.
However, before Bears fans go too far and start photo-shopping Ben Johnson into Chicago Bears apparel — whoops, it looks like that's already happened — let's remember that each time there has been a head coach opening in Chicago, the guy that Bears fans rally behind and put their hopes in inevitably ends up not taking the job. After all, Eberflus was only the top choice of Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
NFL insider Adam Schefter believes that Ben Johnson will be “very, very selective” if he were to decide to leave his post as the Lions' offensive coordinator.
“He's going to be very careful. I don't know that he desires to head in the division to go to a place that you're talking about the dysfunction that has existed within that organization,” Schefter said of Ben Johnson potentially going to Chicago.
The question then becomes, would Ben Johnson be walking into a dysfunctional organization, or are the Bears a dysfunctional organization because of the man who is currently serving as head coach?
Bears reportedly plan to remain tethered to head coach Matt Eberflus
Perhaps even more telling than what Adam Schefter had to say about Ben Johnson's potential interest in the Chicago Bears head coaching job is a report from Brad Briggs that states that Eberflus, who has two years left on his contract after this season, isn't in danger of being fired at season's end, because the Bears have only once fired a head coach who had more than one year left on his deal — Marc Trestman, whose tenure ended after a particularly disastrous and contentious second season.
With that said, Trestman's career winning percentage (.406) is superior to Eberflus' (.333), and only two coaches in franchise history — John Fox and Abe Gibron — have a lower winning percentage than Flus does.
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