Bears Hire DC - Eric Washington

[Lucky Luciano]

ok.... what the hell does this mean?

Head coach Matt Eberflus will continue calling plays, Pelissero added. Washington returns to the Windy City after being a defensive line coach in 2010.

https://www.nfl.com/news/bears-to-hire-eric-washington-as-their-new-defensive-coordinator

[CrackerDog]

I like the hire but not sure about that quote.  

[Pixote]

I'm OK with Flus calling plays for the Defense.

[ASHKUM BEAR]

He was a good defensive line coach when here last and helped young late rd picks or udfa develop.  I was hoping they would hire a guy to take full reins and let Eberflus manage as strictly HC. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

24 minutes ago, Pixote said:

I'm OK with Flus calling plays for the Defense.

Yeah that’s essentially what McDermott did in Buffalo.  I would suspect that Washington will be heavy on the development aspect (especially along the dline with the young studs) and will be good to see he and Edmunds reuniting while they’re at it. 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

I  very happy with this. He is a good coach and I expected Flus to call plays. 

[Lucky Luciano]

10 minutes ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

I  very happy with this. He is a good coach and I expected Flus to call plays. 

why even hire a DC if he is just a puppet for flus?

i seriously can't imagine this was the best most qualified hire given those restrictions. what DC worth a shite is going to put his name on that philosophy?

[ChileBear]

11 minutes ago, Lucky Luciano said:

why even hire a DC if he is just a puppet for flus?

i seriously can't imagine this was the best most qualified hire given those restrictions. what DC worth a shite is going to put his name on that philosophy?

imDo, it's the coaching fraternity. Washington gets a image-projecting position for future hire. Flus can delegate SOME responsibilities on D and focus on other issues. 

[Lucky Luciano]

1 hour ago, ChileBear said:

imDo, it's the coaching fraternity. Washington gets a image-projecting position for future hire. Flus can delegate SOME responsibilities on D and focus on other issues. 

in other words, smoke and mirrors. like mikey supposedly grabbing a hoe and doing the gardening.

maybe this guy COULD be great but you have hamstrung him before he even gets here. this is the same nonsense we have pulled since jim finks had enough of this crap and walked (if anyone is wondering that's almost 45 YEARS of this ineptitude). sound similar to our great coach/OC nagy who was reed's lap dummy? or lovie hiring his linebacker coach to implement the same ole same ole?

it never seems to change with this franchise. it's always a condition to hiring anyone. we will hire you but such and such stays or you have to run their type of system and on and on. nobody in this franchise can define the definition of failure. just plod on and hope it works or not.

[Stinger226]

I think when you call plays that all of the coaches have input into executing the defense. Flus has nothing to do with offense other than whether to go on 4 th down or punt. Seen Dave Wannsted interviewed and he said when he coached, they only have 7 total coaches and they all had multiple jobs. I would think an experience coach wouldn't have any problems with that arangement . Now their is 20 people doing the same thing.

[BearFan PHX]

2 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

in other words, smoke and mirrors. like mikey supposedly grabbing a hoe and doing the gardening.

maybe this guy COULD be great but you have hamstrung him before he even gets here. this is the same nonsense we have pulled since jim finks had enough of this crap and walked (if anyone is wondering that's almost 45 YEARS of this ineptitude). sound similar to our great coach/OC nagy who was reed's lap dummy? or lovie hiring his linebacker coach to implement the same ole same ole?

it never seems to change with this franchise. it's always a condition to hiring anyone. we will hire you but such and such stays or you have to run their type of system and on and on. nobody in this franchise can define the definition of failure. just plod on and hope it works or not.

this is 100% right. I bought into it for a long time, but eventually, I realized it was just a circle going around and around making the same bad structural errors over and over for decades.

I hope Kevin Warren will eventually have enough juice in the building and perspective to fix some of these things. That would probably mean hiring a new GM, so Poles has to run his experiment first.

And dont get me wrong, I have loved Poles up until his decision to keep Eberflus. I feel like he is good at identifying talent and bringing people here, now we get to see if he will fire, cut or trade "his" people.

I never thought Velus or Claypool were picks Poles would have made if he didnt feel pressure to being in WRs. When you have positional needs like that, you reach. I think Poles knew he was reaching too at the time, but he had to do it. So I think getting rid of those two is easier for him.

But YES, if this crashes and burns, Warren needs to get all the pieces in order top down. Dont hire a linebackers coach before the coordinator. Dont hire the coach before the GM etc etc. And get a QB who is synchronized with the coaching staff. Dont take a rookie and dazzle him with the last year of an outgoing loser. It just makes them confused.

[BearFan PHX]

A defensive oriented head coach like Wannstedt or Eberflus will absolutely tell the offense to run more, eat more clock, take fewer risks and play field position. Look at Tony Dungy. That's the blueprint.

Unfortunately, the rules have changed in the NFL and the days of smothering a good opponent 13-7 are much fewer. To realistically win in the NFL youve got to be able to put 30 points up on a somewhat regular basis. And that doesnt work with safe zone, eat clock, possession football of 30 years ago.

[Stinger226]

3 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

in other words, smoke and mirrors. like mikey supposedly grabbing a hoe and doing the gardening.

maybe this guy COULD be great but you have hamstrung him before he even gets here. this is the same nonsense we have pulled since jim finks had enough of this crap and walked (if anyone is wondering that's almost 45 YEARS of this ineptitude). sound similar to our great coach/OC nagy who was reed's lap dummy? or lovie hiring his linebacker coach to implement the same ole same ole?

it never seems to change with this franchise. it's always a condition to hiring anyone. we will hire you but such and such stays or you have to run their type of system and on and on. nobody in this franchise can define the definition of failure. just plod on and hope it works or not.

I get the narrative , same old Bears but clearly the new people are running the team now, not the McCaskeys. So it's a different road we will be going down that may even end up being in the same place but is too early to tell. Stein being let go was a move the McCaskeys didn't like but it happened, proof their hands are off now. I remind people that a few years ago the Bears hired an offensive coach that was supposed to change everything. That didn't work out, the key is getting the right coach, I could care less if he's a O or a D, or STs. I just want a winner. One more year will prove if Flus is any good, clearly Poles thinks so.

[Lucky Luciano]

13 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

I get the narrative , same old Bears but clearly the new people are running the team now, not the McCaskeys. So it's a different road we will be going down that may even end up being in the same place but is too early to tell. Stein being let go was a move the McCaskeys didn't like but it happened, proof their hands are off now.

really? maybe, maybe not.

i seem to remember back when president ted phillips stood on the podium next to the family gardener and said any decisions to fire a coach/gm (there has been so many i can't remember the details of who it was) CLEARLY state he would have to talk it over with mike mccaskey. hmmmm.... not quite what they led us to believe about who was running the show.

here is the FINAL NOTE: would you right now today  give eberflus a 4 year extension on his contract? yes or no.

if your answer is no, then why did we retain him in the first place?

my thoughts on flus... could he be a good head coach? the answer is yes but only if he would stay out of the way of his assistant coaches other than to guide them in the right or at least different direction without having any stipulations on the type of coordinators or what system they chose to run. this i 'may' be calling the defense is ludicrous.

lovie couldn't do it, can he?

[Mongo3451]

For starters, yes, we need a defensive coordinator.  Flus can't continue to spread himself as thin as he did last year.  To the point of Flus calling the defense.  Who cares, sad long as it works?  He only stated that he likes calling the D and it would depend on who he hired.  Whether the coordinator calls the plays or not, he still has a ton of work to do.  If it were a McCaskey thing, they would have saved the money and not filled the position.  This is clearly about building the best staff possible.

[ChileBear]

51 minutes ago, Lucky Luciano said:

really? maybe, maybe not.

i seem to remember back when president ted phillips stood on the podium next to the family gardener and said any decisions to fire a coach/gm (there has been so many i can't remember the details of who it was) CLEARLY state he would have to talk it over with mike mccaskey. hmmmm.... not quite what they led us to believe about who was running the show.

here is the FINAL NOTE: would you right now today  give eberflus a 4 year extension on his contract? yes or no.

if your answer is no, then why did we retain him in the first place?

my thoughts on flus... could he be a good head coach? the answer is yes but only if he would stay out of the way of his assistant coaches other than to guide them in the right or at least different direction without having any stipulations on the type of coordinators or what system they chose to run. this i 'may' be calling the defense is ludicrous.

lovie couldn't do it, can he?

I think we all view retaining Flus as a head-scratcher. But, as I think Stinger pointed out in another thread, Poles is unlike any GM we've had, he has a system and he sticks to it. He is consistent and I think Flus did just enough last season to let Poles stick to the 4-year rebuild and keep Flus around, at least in year 3. We just haven't seen this systematic approach from a GM and it seems to work around the league. So, yeah, I would have let Flus go, but I'm buying into Poles and I'm trusting his vision.

Flus has a 4 year contract (?) so definitely no, I wouldn't extend him now, but gotta see what year three of the Poles Flus rebuild will bring and revisit this after next season.

[Lucky Luciano]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

He only stated that he likes calling the D and it would depend on who he hired.  Whether the coordinator calls the plays or not, he still has a ton of work to do.  If it were a McCaskey thing, they would have saved the money and not filled the position.  This is clearly about building the best staff possible.

1. let me state this: in my opinion poles 'so far' has done an excellent job. with that in mind a couple of red flags for me have come up that bears watching.

a) the defense did provide a vast improvement over the season with this caveat... against good teams with good qb's we struggled in pass protection enormously . this is to me the major flaw of this cover 2 type of defenses that goes all the way back to lovie smith and the firing of chico. good qb's will bounce the quick release and throw uncontested strikes in the soft zones all day long for 5-10 yd gains.

this may beat the lower tier teams you can offensively keep up with but when it comes to high scoring playoff contenders it is a disaster. pick ANY year against green bay since favre has been here. they handed us our lunch for over 20 years with the bend don't break game plans with some outstanding defensive players on our roster during this period. payton manning crushed us in the superbowl which is where we hope we are heading into against top tier teams.

b) "depending upon who he hired". this is red flag #2. i don't know the facts behind our search or hiring but if this was in the criteria of finding a DC that is a puppet or clone of flus strictly for that reason then we didn't look for the possibly best DC, we looked for the best DC that complimented flus's system. that is what this franchise has done since finks left. put the cart before the horse and if that didn't work put the cart ON the horse. all this said i am not dissing the hire but i really do not know if washington was the best DC candidate or just the best for flus.

[Lucky Luciano]

2 hours ago, ChileBear said:

I

Flus has a 4 year contract (?) so definitely no, I wouldn't extend him now, but gotta see what year three of the Poles Flus rebuild will bring and revisit this after next season.

i just gotta say this... after 2 years of watching a coach perform, if a GM doesn't have an idea whether he made a mistake in the hire then i question his ability to lead the franchise to the promised land.

in 2 years the lag starts to catch up to us. qb wise and player contract hits. if he is not the coach of our future then we have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and draft picks if there would have been a better choice after year 2.

[Stinger226]

3 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

really? maybe, maybe not.

i seem to remember back when president ted phillips stood on the podium next to the family gardener and said any decisions to fire a coach/gm (there has been so many i can't remember the details of who it was) CLEARLY state he would have to talk it over with mike mccaskey. hmmmm.... not quite what they led us to believe about who was running the show.

here is the FINAL NOTE: would you right now today  give eberflus a 4 year extension on his contract? yes or no.

if your answer is no, then why did we retain him in the first place?

my thoughts on flus... could he be a good head coach? the answer is yes but only if he would stay out of the way of his assistant coaches other than to guide them in the right or at least different direction without having any stipulations on the type of coordinators or what system they chose to run. this i 'may' be calling the defense is ludicrous.

lovie couldn't do it, can he?

Clearly you make your own judgement but Cliff Stein was loved by the McCaskeys and yet Warren got rid of him. Doesn't seem like the McCaskeys made that move. Flus is on a 4 year contract, no need to give him a contract now.   Poles wants him here and their jobs are tied to each other now. I don't think he cares that you don't like it. So if we make the playoffs next year and go 11-6, will you change your mind about Flus?

[Pixote]

Nice article about Eric Washington on nbcsportschicago.com explaining why he was a great choice for our DC. I was super impressed with the interview quotes from previous players that he tutored. Seems like he has a reputation for being an outstanding teacher. He also has a lot of experience in the schemes Flus uses. Good read.

Brian Burns praise, stellar resume show why Bears hired Eric Washington as DC

[BearFan PHX]

6 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

i just gotta say this... after 2 years of watching a coach perform, if a GM doesn't have an idea whether he made a mistake in the hire then i question his ability to lead the franchise to the promised land.

in 2 years the lag starts to catch up to us. qb wise and player contract hits. if he is not the coach of our future then we have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and draft picks if there would have been a better choice after year 2.

agree, you dont need to wait until the last minute of the last year of someones contract to know if you got it right or not. two years is a lot of time to see stuff and evaluate.

[Stinger226]

12 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

i just gotta say this... after 2 years of watching a coach perform, if a GM doesn't have an idea whether he made a mistake in the hire then i question his ability to lead the franchise to the promised land.

in 2 years the lag starts to catch up to us. qb wise and player contract hits. if he is not the coach of our future then we have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and draft picks if there would have been a better choice after year 2.

Poles totally knows what he's doing, he wanted Flus back. It's not like he's saying we need to see another year out of him then he'll judge his choice. You can have a different opinion on him but you're not the GM. His job depends on his choices, he is exercising his choices to build a team , he's not asking for fan input.

[Lucky Luciano]

8 hours ago, Stinger226 said:

You can have a different opinion on him but you're not the GM.

how do you know I'm not the GM?

[Stinger226]

10 minutes ago, Lucky Luciano said:

how do you know I'm not the GM?

I wish you were we could a more serious conversation.

[adam]

21 hours ago, Lucky Luciano said:

i just gotta say this... after 2 years of watching a coach perform, if a GM doesn't have an idea whether he made a mistake in the hire then i question his ability to lead the franchise to the promised land.

in 2 years the lag starts to catch up to us. qb wise and player contract hits. if he is not the coach of our future then we have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and draft picks if there would have been a better choice after year 2.

Flus is fine for a CEO type head coach. I would say the play callers on both sides of the ball are more important than the HC. Baltimore didn't win or lose because of Harbaugh.

For a team like KC, Reid is important because he is the playcaller on the offense. Same for Shanahan. It's not because they are good HCs. That's also why they have prominent DCs in Spags and Wilks. 

Flus is actually above average as a Defensive play caller. Does he get a little passive with soft zone at times, sure, but maybe it's because he knows Jackson is no longer EJack on there.

The Bears need to get the Offensive Playcaller pipeline stocked. The only issue with a defensive HC or CEO type HC is you will lose your primary offensive play caller every few years (see Baltimore, watch Detroit).