Within the lengthy historical past of Bears dysfunction that features the botched press convention to announce the hiring of head coach Dave McGinnis that by no means occurred, Sam Hurd’s in-season arrest on drug costs and offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer tearfully apologizing to the staff for telling an NFL Community reporter the group had “purchaser’s regret” after signing Jay Cutler to a seven-year, $126.7 million contract extension, the 2014 staff below Marc Trestman and basic supervisor Phil Emery stands alone.
That staff was loaded with offensive weapons — quarterback Jay Cutler, working again Matt Forte, large receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery and tight finish Martellus Bennett. And in Trestman, the Bears had a head coach who might maximize Cutler and take that gifted offense to a different stage after enhancing from sixteenth in scoring to second in Trestman’s first season in 2013.
All of it sounded so good — which could have been the primary pink flag. Others quickly adopted:
- In coaching camp at Bourbonnais, Bennett was fined and suspended for body-slamming rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller — solely the staff’s first-round draft choose — after taking exception to Fuller’s onerous sort out in a staff drill. Bennett was unrepentant afterwards. “That’s my model of play. I’m going to proceed to play the way in which I play,” he stated after the incident.
- Six days earlier than the season opener, veteran linebacker Lance Briggs took a follow day without work — with Trestman’s permission — to open his restaurant, the Double Nickel Smokehouse in his hometown of Elk Grove, Calif. (Trestman already had allowed Marshall to journey to New York every week to look on Showtime’s “Contained in the NFL” on Tuesdays, a weekly day without work for gamers.)
- 4 days earlier than a Monday evening sport towards the Jets, Marshall calls his personal awkward press convention to deal with the tradition of home abuse within the U.S. and refute allegations of home abuse
- After a 31-24 loss to the Panthers at Financial institution of America Stadium in Charlotte dropped the Bears to 2-3, defensive finish Lamarr Houston tells non-believing followers to “eat filth” in a Twitter rant.
- After a 27-14 loss to the Dolphins at Soldier Subject dropped the Bears to 3-4, Marshall lashes out at teammates — together with Cutler and kicker Robbie Gould — in an emotional locker-room rant that may be heard by reporters ready outdoors.
- With the air supposedly cleared and the Bears prepared to maneuver on, they misplaced 51-23 to Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots at Gillette Stadium — falling behind 38-7 at halftime. Houston suffers a torn ACL celebrating a sack of back-up Jimmy Garoppolo with the Bears trailing 48-23 with lower than 4 minutes left.
- After taking the bye week to self-scout and re-dedicate themselves (“I’ve seen this occur after a bye week the place groups discover themselves,” Trestman stated), the Bears reached one other embarrassing low towards the Packers at Lambeau Subject — falling behind 42-0 at halftime in a 55-14 loss.
- With the Bears’ season spiraling uncontrolled, Marshall will get in a Twitter spat with a Lions fan and challenges him to a struggle — providing him $25,000 to “get in a hoop with me.” After which claims it’s a part of an anti-bullying marketing campaign.
The Bears had been so off the rails throughout that season that each Trestman and Emery had been fired the day after the 5-11 season ended. It was unprecedented change at usually affected person Halas Corridor — Trestman was in his second season as head coach; Emery in his third as basic supervisor.
Ten years later, the Bears are again within the muck — with a once-promising season de-railed by 10 straight losses, and neither the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron nor head coach Matt Eberflus in a position to cease the bleeding. And the way forward for basic supervisor Ryan Poles is unsure.
However whereas the 2014 season nonetheless stands as the peak of season-long dysfunction at Halas Corridor, the 2024 season is the larger disappointment.
With rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, upgraded weapons in receivers DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and No. 9 total choose Rome Odunze and a protection that led the league in fewest factors allowed over the ultimate eight video games of final season, this staff was set as much as take a minimum of a big step towards sustained success — if not a large leap towards a deep postseason run. As an alternative, the Bears took a giant, discouraging step backward that uncovered the identical outdated drawback at Halas Corridor — unhealthy soccer judgment from the highest down.
A staff that prides itself on resilience by no means rallied after shedding on a Hail Mary towards the Commanders. The one sparks this staff confirmed — towards the Packers and Vikings — ended not solely in disappointment, however disillusionment.
And a lot for the very best state of affairs a quarterback drafted No. 1 total ever had. Moore is averaging a career-low 9.9 yards per catch. Allen is averaging a career-low 51.4 yards per sport. D’Andre Swift is averaging a career-low 3.8 yards per carry.
And even Williams is an x-factor at this level. Because the bye, he’s accomplished 59.9% of his passes — a pink flag for a quarterback who takes notable pleasure in his accuracy. Williams nonetheless is the very best quarterback prospect the Bears have ever had, however after 67 sacks … properly, if the Bears aren’t ruining Williams, they’re actually not nurturing him. We’re again to admiring these spotlight throws just a few quarterbacks on this planet could make — haven’t we been right here earlier than?
In actual fact, we now have. That’s one more reason why, of all of the Bears seasons when the coach was fired — 2012 (Lovie Smith), 2014 (Trestman), 2017 (John Fox), 2021 (Matt Nagy) and 2024 (Eberflus) — this one is essentially the most disappointing of all.
