Where do the Chicago Bears turn after firing Matt Eberflus?

The day after another stunning defeat – this time with one of the most humiliating results in franchise history in front of a particularly large and astonished holiday crowd – the Chicago Bears took their easiest route to resolution.

Firefighter coach Matt Eberflus. Clean up this final mess. Move forward.

General manager Ryan Poles, with the blessing of President/CEO Kevin Warren, did what most of the football world expected and practically begged the Bears to do it. They showed Eberflus the exit on Friday, a move that became official with a press release at 11:58 a.m.

It was a logical necessity, an in-season firing that serves as an attempt by upper management to appease an increasingly disaffected locker room. The last of Eberflus’ 32 defeats was simply too unforgivable to bear, a 23-20 debacle on Thursday that resulted in astonishing mismanagement of the clock in the final minute.

With his final timeout still available, Eberflus froze when rookie quarterback Caleb Williams messed up the final sequence and managed just one snap in the final 32 seconds against the Detroit Lions. It was a coaching error of the highest order, made even worse when Eberflus defended his inaction in the post-match press conference.

“I think we handled it the right way,” he said, leaving no doubt in the minds of many around the league that his time as head coach was up, especially after the Bears went on an incomprehensible six-game losing streak that wasn’t obvious End in sight.

So Friday marked the end for Eberflus after hours of high-level deliberations at Halas Hall, during which Warren and Poles focused primarily on being thorough, deliberate and fair before making a final decision and seeking the owner’s approval.

To some around the league and within public opinion, the Bears appeared to clumsily handle Eberflus’ final day at Halas Hall, asking him to hold his regular day-after-game videoconference with the media at 9 a.m. just hours beforehand his dismissal.

But the end result and the methodical process the Bears used to get there were the more significant developments of the day. For the first time in 105 Chicago Bears seasons, a head coach was fired during the season.

At the very least, this historic if daunting move solidified the power the McCaskey family has entrusted to Warren and reaffirmed the authority the second-year president wields in overseeing football operations.

Now Warren faces a much tougher task and must ensure that the next chapters of the team’s story, of which he is the author, are accompanied by far greater success, starting with the high-risk search for a long-term replacement for Eberflus.

The next steps

Across the league, the procedures on Friday seemed unnecessarily cumbersome to some. Eberflus was the only person in the organization to speak publicly less than two hours before his firing, peppered with 11 questions.

The Poles expressed a 66-word team statement praising Eberflus for his “hard work, professionalism and dedication.” What followed were 63 words from Warren, the most notable of which highlighted the importance of a head coach in “building and sustaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization.”

Neither Poles nor Warren were available for questions Friday and likely won’t speak to reporters until next week.

“This is unreal,” said one league executive. “If you fire a head coach during the season, someone at the top should talk to him. And immediately. In healthy organizations, everything gets done quickly. When you have real alignment in your building, it’s easy to stand up and talk about it.

“And what’s perhaps craziest is that they took advantage of this moment when literally everyone – locally, nationally – said, ‘You need to fire Eberflus’ and applauded the decision, and they changed the dialogue to a perception to introduce: ‘Whoa. What a (messed up) place this seems to be.’”

What now? And why does this all matter?

First and foremost, the Bears still have five weeks to find their feet and need to find the least bumpy path over the finish line of this wasted season. They will do so with Thomas Brown as interim coach, a tall order for an assistant who assumed his role as interim offensive coordinator just 17 days earlier.

In three weeks, Brown has gone from passing game coordinator to “next man up” behind him two fired coaches – first Shane Waldron and now Eberflus.

Even Poland and Warren would admit that this situation is far from ideal. But Brown now becomes one of those responsible for keeping an entire team’s morale up during this crumbling season.

And in terms of perception alone, the Bears need to convince their players, fans and others around the NFL that they handled Eberflus’ firing with the necessary grace and a healthy process.

When Poles and Warren speak next week, this should be high on their priority list.

“There are a lot more levels involved in decisions like this than most people think,” said an NFC front office executive. “There is a lot to discuss. There are a lot of boxes to check. There are many people to communicate with. And I imagine Ryan and Kevin were careful not to make a hasty emotional decision.”

Sales pitch

But there is concern around the league that the Bears’ continued on-field failures and off-field confusion could hurt their chances of making the best possible hire for their next head coach.

For at least some candidates, the organization’s long track record of mediocrity and ineptitude could become a significant deterrent.

“Will a big-time coach with options really want to deal with the dynamic that exists at Halas Hall?” said a former AFC personnel man. “And will the Bears really be able to catch a big fish if you also ask him to marry a GM whose long-term job security isn’t secure enough to guarantee a suitable schedule?”

A league source said the Bears wouldn’t provide nearly the same level of deterrence as the New York Jets, whose owner Woody Johnson has a reputation for being impulsive and volatile. However, the same source believes that more than a few head coach candidates will approach the Bears’ job with a long list of questions that require satisfactory answers.

From above, Warren needs to provide vision and direction and exude confidence and optimism that a quick turnaround is possible.

In many ways, the Bears job will remain attractive and highly coveted — especially, as a league source noted, given the state of the roster, the health of the salary cap and the presence of a potential young star quarterback.

“They won’t have any trouble selling this as a great job,” the source said.

“This is scary for Caleb.”

As for Williams, whose talent seems to grow more intriguing with each game? Well, he spent the pre-draft process doing his homework on why the Bears have been so poor at finding a path to sustained success since the late 1980s.

Williams was assured, especially by Poland, that all these failures were a thing of the past, missteps of previous incompetent regimes. Now 12 games into his rookie season, Williams saw his offensive coordinator and head coach fired 17 days apart.