It’s official. Just two days after becoming the Bears' new GM, Ryan Poles has brought in a new head coach. On Thursday night, the Bears announced Matt Eberflus will be the man leading the Bears locker room moving forward.
“I would like to thank Ryan and the McCaskey family for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the Chicago Bears, one of the most storied franchises in all of sports in one of the greatest cities in the world,” Eberflus said in a statement. “I am truly humbled and honored to be named your head coach and together we will do everything in our power to bring a Super Bowl championship back to Chicago.”
This is Eberflus’ first shot at leading an NFL team. He has 13 years worth of experience coaching at the NFL level, most recently as the Colts defensive coordinator.
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“I couldn’t be more excited to have Matt become the next head coach of the Chicago Bears,” Poles said in a statement. “His experience, passion, character and attention to detail made him the right man for both the job and the culture we intend to establish here at Halas Hall. Throughout the search, Matt impressed me when detailing his vision and plan for our team. We look forward to getting to work and assembling a top-notch staff and roster that will help us consistently compete for championships.”
Eberflus joined the Colts before Frank Reich in 2018, and with Reich coming in as an offensive coach, Eberflus was paramount in revitalizing the Colts defense. In 2017, the year before Eberflus came to Indianapolis, the Colts ranked 30th in the league in both scoring and total defense. The next year, Eberflus helped the defense climb all the way to No. 10 in points allowed and No. 11 in yards allowed. Last season, the Colts ranked No. 9 in scoring defense and No. 16 in total defense.
He helped bring about quick turnarounds in other key areas as well一 key areas that happened to be Bears bugaboos in 2021. In 2017, the Colts defense ranked 20th in takeaways, then steadily climbed to 10th in 2018, fifth in 2020 and second last season. In addition, he’s created a disciplined culture, with his defense rarely committing costly penalties. In 2021, the Colts ranked tied for the fewest amount of defensive holdings, and had the second fewest amount of roughing the passer penalties. They were only called for taunting once.
Eberflus has a background coaching linebackers, and helped groom Darius Leonard into a three-time All-Pro. Before coming to the Colts he worked as the Cowboys linebackers coach from 2011-2017 and their passing game coordinator in 2016 and 2017. In that role he also helped shape Sean Lee into an All-Pro, and worked with DeMarcus Ware, as well.
