The Chicago Bears coaching staff has been the most maligned in the NFL this season, which hasn’t changed much despite a mid-year swap of head coaches.
New head coach Thomas Brown, who replaced Matt Eberflus in late November, has dealt with time management issues of his own since stepping into the top job on the Chicago sideline. Time management issues and an accompanying lack of accountability on the part of Eberflus cost him the locker room and ultimately his job deep into his third season with the franchise in 2024.
While the accountability issues don’t appear to exist between Brown and his players, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams made a move late in the second half against the Green Bay Packers in Week 18 that read like a clear challenge to his coach’s game management competencies.
“Oh look. Caleb Williams called a timeout on his own on the field,” Courtney Cronin of ESPN posted to X.
Thomas Brown Made Late-Game Management Gaffe Against Seahawks in Week 17
GettyChicago Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown.
Brown, who began this season as Chicago’s pass game coordinator before moving into the role of offensive coordinator and eventually head coach, is 0-4 at the helm.
And while the Bears were losing before Brown’s ascent, they have been decidedly less competitive since the departure of Eberflus following a brutal last-second defeat against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day.
The exception to that came in Week 17, when the Bears fell to the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 6-3. During that contest, Brown made a decision to punt on 4th-and-short from the Chicago 39-yard-line with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game and all three timeouts available.
That decision was confusing considering that the Bears’ playoff chances had long vanished, the offense and fans clearly wanted to be aggressive and pursue a first down, and playing situations overly safe contributed significantly to some of Chicago’s earlier losses in the year/Eberflus’s ultimate exit from the franchise.
Brown apparently came to those realizations too late, calling a timeout in order to avoid a delay-of-game penalty before sending the offense back out onto the field. He claimed in the postgame press conference that there was no confusion and that he simply “changed my mind.”
However, Brown’s hesitancy and indecisiveness in the clutch, leading to a wasted timeout, had already rendered the damage done.
Caleb Williams’ Actions Against Packers Don’t Bode Well for Thomas Brown’s Future With Bears
GettyChicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
Chicago announced Sunday that it will interview Brown for its vacant head coaching position once his interim title expires following the season. However, Williams’ in-game actions against the Packers can’t be ignored as the franchise examines other head coaching options who have far more experience and more impressive resumés than does Brown.
The rookie quarterback, who turned just 23 years old in November, clearly took it upon himself to relieve Brown of clock management responsibilities as the Bears drove the football near the end of the second half at Lambeau Field in Week 18.
It is difficult to interpret Williams’ actions as anything other than a lack of trust in his first-time head coach, which is indicative of who else the quarterback might prefer when it comes to the organization’s decision on a long-term sideline leader come the offseason.
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