One year after flaming out in Chicago, Matt Eberflus is out in Dallas—an ending that should make Bears fans ever more thankful the franchise turned the page.
Former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has officially been fired from his role as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
Eberflus lasted just one season in Dallas after being hired following his disastrous tenure in Chicago. It’s a steep fall for a coach who was once regarded as one of the better defensive coordinators in football during his time with the Indianapolis Colts—the reputation that landed him the Bears’ head-coaching job in the first place.
A disastrous tenure in Chicago
Eberflus finished his Bears tenure with a 14–32 record over 46 games. That included a 3–14 debut season, followed by a 7–10 campaign that briefly gave Chicago hope and thrust the team into the national spotlight via HBO's Hard Knocks ahead of the 2024 season.
That optimism didn’t last.
The Bears opened 4–2 before losing 10 straight games, and as the season unraveled, it became clear Eberflus no longer had control of the locker room. Accountability was lacking. Game management was routinely botched. Blame was often deflected onto players. And, somehow, the FBI raiding the office of defensive coordinator Alan Williams at Halas Hall wasn't the most chaotic thing to happen during the regular season.
So yeah, it was a total disaster in every sense of the word and a no-brainer mid-season firing.
Among all NFL head coaches who have coached at least 45 games, Eberflus’ career winning percentage (.309) ranks near the bottom—roughly 220th out of 235 qualifying coaches.
The NFL's worst defense
To be fair, there’s a case that Eberflus was set up to fail with the Cowboys. Dallas traded away its best player, outside linebacker Micah Parsons, just before the regular season following a falling out with owner and de facto general manager Jerry Jones. That move alone crippled the defense.
Still, Dallas finished the season as the worst defense in the NFL, allowing 30.1 points per game and 251.5 passing yards per contest. They were led in sacks by Jadeveon Clowney with just 8.5—and three of those came in the final week against the New York Giants.
Eberflus didn’t have much to work with. But when your unit is that bad, it’s impossible to argue you’re maximizing the talent you do have. That’s the job of a coordinator—and once again, he fell short of his duties.
The Bears got lucky
Eberflus will likely resurface next season as a defensive assistant somewhere. He has enough experience to contribute to staff as a position coach. But he’s now proven, repeatedly, that he’s not cut out for a top NFL job—whether as a head coach or as a coordinator.
And honestly? Bears fans should be grateful for it all
Watching how badly things have gone for Eberflus over the past year only highlights how fortunate Chicago is to have moved on to Ben Johnson. But keeping Eberflus for the extra year and into the 2024 season allowed the Bears to time up their next hire just right. They got their guy, and that doesn't happen if Chicago didn't suffer through 46 games of the Eberflus Era.
In one offseason, Johnson built a culture Eberflus never came close to establishing. He has full locker-room buy-in. He has the offense humming—finishing ninth in scoring and sixth in total yards. He won the NFC North with 11 wins and now has a chance to give Bears fans a moment they’ll remember forever with a playoff victory over the Green Bay Packers.
If Matt Eberflus were coaching this roster, things would have gone off the rails long ago.