Thomas Brown had a front-row seat to the Bears' dysfunction. Here’s how he would fix it

LAKE FOREST – Thomas Brown saw how the sausage is made.

The 38-year-old football coach learned a lot in his five games as the interim head coach of the Chicago Bears. He had a chance to experience everything that comes with making an NFL franchise run.

The good and the bad.

Nobody knows what the Bears need moving forward better than Brown, who tried to give this team a fresh start after general manager Ryan Poles fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Nov. 29.

Brown joined Eberflus' coaching staff last winter as passing game coordinator. He was not in Chicago from the beginning when the Bears hired Eberflus in 2022. He was not part of those foundation-building seasons in 2022 and 2023.

But he had a front-row seat to everything that went wrong in 2024.

Speaking Monday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Brown fielded several questions about his future and the state of the Bears. He was careful not to throw anybody under the bus, but he also made some pretty interesting comments that Bears fans should pay close attention to.

[ Here are the coaching candidates who the Chicago Bears have requested interviews with ]

“I can just speak to my perspective, of being around winning organizations, and the ones that haven’t been [winning], that there’s one missing piece,” Brown said. “That’s being aligned as far as everyone moving in the same direction, but I also think [it’s] shared accountability throughout the building.”

Brown has worked for three NFL teams and six college football programs. Some had success (he won a Super Bowl as an assistant with the Rams) and others haven’t.

Pressed further on building organizational success, Brown offered this: “The more I think about how many people lacked the courage to face issues is shocking to me. And an organization and a team is built around alpha personalities or perceived alpha personalities, and then we expect things to change without addressing them.”

He wasn’t necessarily speaking directly about the 2024 Bears, but it’s fair to wonder if there were conversations that weren’t happening – conversations that should’ve been happening – under Eberflus.

Brown noted after Sunday’s win over Green Bay, which was his first win as an NFL head coach, that he has had some frank and hard conversations with quarterback Caleb Williams in recent weeks. Brown believes wholeheartedly in facing those difficult conversations head-on.

In a clip shared by the team after Sunday’s win, Williams gave Brown the game ball after his first win, and Williams noted that at various times Brown was “cursing me out” and that Williams did the same back.

Brown noted that it can be a delicate dance with a quarterback. Williams was anointed the starter from the minute the Bears drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in April.

“One of the difficult parts about the quarterback position that I’ve found is people baby the quarterback too much and they worry more about being liked by the quarterback than tell him what he needs to hear,” Brown said.

Brown never wanted to be that type of coach. Brown’s comments might make Bears fans think back to Keenan Allen’s comment after Shane Waldron was fired. Allen indicated Waldron’s biggest flaw was that he was “too nice.”

Nobody has yet to accuse Brown of the same.

Williams welcomed the difficult conversations. He noted Monday that he wants a head coach who will continue to challenge him.

“I don’t have an issue with being challenged,” Williams said Monday. “I don’t have an issue with speaking truth between the coach and I.”

One of the difficult parts about the quarterback position that I’ve found is people baby the quarterback too much and they worry more about being liked by the quarterback than tell him what he needs to hear."

—  Thomas Brown, Bears interim head coach

Getting the most out of Williams and the offense has to be a top priority for the next Bears head coach. That coaching search began Monday with the team requesting interviews with numerous candidates across the league.

Brown will interview for the permanent job, too. The Bears went 1-4 with Brown as the interim head coach. While the Bears might like the leadership qualities Brown possesses, his candidacy probably feels like a long shot given the results of the past month.

Still, Brown is going to make his case. He said Monday that if he were in charge from the start, the offense would’ve looked “a lot different.”

“If you want to be a great team, want to be a great quarterback, want to be a great player, in general it’s built in the offseason, long before the camera is on you, long before you play a football game,” Brown said. “So the foundational piece is going to be different.”

The Bears must begin building a foundation all over again.