What’s at stake for Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus in 2024?

The decision spoke volumes. While a handful of teams fired their head coaches in the days after the NFL’s 2023 regular season concluded, the Bears stuck by head coach Matt Eberflus.

The organization’s leaders, notably general manager Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren, were able to look past an awful start to the 2023 season and see how Eberflus kept his team together to finish strong. The Bears went 7-10 in 2023, despite an 0-4 start.

The Bears fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and much of the offensive staff, but elected to keep Eberflus in place. That decision came despite some high-profile coaches on the market: Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick, Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll.

Six months later, the vibes around the Bears have done a complete 180. The Bears have the most exciting young quarterback in the league in Caleb Williams. They added offensive weapons like Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze and D’Andre Swift.

On paper, this group has the pieces to be one of the league’s breakout teams. The expectation around Chicago seems to be that this team is capable of a winning record. Even a 9-8 season would put the Bears in playoff contention.

But expectations are one thing and reality is another. It will take hard work to turn this team around. Eberflus has never been afraid of putting in work. Here are three questions the head coach will have to answer in 2024.

Do the Bears finally have a passing attack?

The offense is in the hands of coordinator Shane Waldron. Still, this is Eberflus’ team. Waldron was his hand-picked offensive coordinator and he was one of the highest-profile offensive coordinators available in January. If this offense doesn’t work, the entire coaching staff will be in trouble.

Waldron inherits a team that finished second in the NFL in rushing last season – and then added a Pro Bowl running back. The run game won’t be the challenge. Incorporating a rookie quarterback with an impressive receiving group will be. The Bears need to be better in the passing game.

The team was historically bad at passing the football in 2022 (the NFL’s worst in a decade). While they were slightly better in 2023, they still finished 27th among 32 teams in passing yards. The hopes of this 2024 team hinge on Williams picking things up quickly.

And no matter how good Eberflus’ defense is, it won’t matter if the offense can’t score points.

Can the Bears win close games?

In the end, it all comes down to wins and losses.

An NFL head coach can do all the little things right – play calling, challenges, leading the locker room – but if the team isn’t winning football games it won’t matter.

Under Eberflus, the Bears are 3-13 in games decided by one possession. They went 1-7 in 2022 and 2-6 in 2023. The margins for error in the NFL can be minuscule. So many games come down to the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. A team can’t keep losing close games and expect to be a winner.

An Eberflus-led team needs to prove it can perform in crunch time. The Bears blew three double-digit, fourth-quarter leads last year. It’s easy to forget that fact given all the positivity that, understandably so, has been following this organization for six months.

This is a new team, but the voice in charge remains the same. Eberflus needs to prove that his team can develop a killer instinct in the fourth quarter.

Can the defense keep rolling?

This should be the thing Eberflus is most confident about. The defense was elite during the last six games of 2023. It brings back nearly everybody. If this defense isn’t rolling in 2024, there’s a major problem.

Eberflus proved that he’s a master defensive coordinator. He called plays for the defense most of last season and the Bears thrived. He needs to keep his foot on the gas pedal defensively. A good defense could be enough to propel a team to the playoffs, even if the offense lags behind. It has happened plenty of times in the past.

The defense is a big reason why Eberflus returned. The performances from Montez Sweat, Tremaine Edmunds and Jaylon Johnson in November and December saved what could’ve been a much worse 2023 season. Sweat and Johnson are coming off their first Pro Bowl seasons. The secondary with Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker and others is deep and experienced. The defense has all the pieces to be among the league’s best.

Now it’s time to prove it.