Mad for coordinators

 I don't know if Matt Eberflus is the answer to the Chicago Bears' chronic mediocrity. I don't know if there is an answer, short of strapping the McCaskeys to a rocket and shooting them into space.

What I do know is they sure do love them some coordinators in the NASH-unal FOOT-ball League these days.

"Coordinators, coordinators, coordinators" has become the NFL's "location, location, location" mantra this hiring season, narrowly beating out "retreads, retreads, retreads." The Bears traded one coordinator named Matt for another, plucking Colts defensive coordinator Eberflus to replace former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy. Former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was just sentenced to hard time as the new head coach of the New York Giants.

And in Denver?

The Broncos have anointed former Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, mainly because they're trying to lure Aaron Rodgers away from Green Bay. Hackett and Rodgers were tight in the Bay, the thinking goes. So why not get them back together in Denver for a buddy film?

As for the retread part ... well, a bunch of failed NFL head coaches have been sitting for interviews elsewhere lately. Dan Quinn, evicted in Atlanta in 2020 and now defensive coordinator in Dallas, interviewed not only with the Bears and Broncos but with the Giants, Vikings and Dolphins. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who crashed and burned as a head coach in Denver, is being pursued by the Raiders. 

Even Bill O'Brien, who wrecked the Houston Texans and is now Nick Saban's offensive coordinator at Alabama, interviewed for the head coaching vacancy in Jacksonville. Wisely, he's reportedly staying put with the better franchise in Tuscaloosa.

And Eberflus?

Lots of folks in Chicago are wondering if he's just Matt Nagy 2,0, or why the Bears would hire a defensive guy when they've got a a promising young quarterback (Justin Fields) who needs nurturing. The jury is obviously way out on on the first; the second doesn't really have a bearing on anything.

Nagy, after all, was an offensive guy, and he had no clue what to do with poor Fields. Conversely, defensive guys in the head coaching chair in Buffalo and San Diego don't seem to have impaired the development of Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, respectively. 

That's because they hired smart guys as offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches, who have more impact on a quarterback's development than the head coach. The head coach, in the NFL, is the CEO. It's the department heads who make the the thing go.

Which is why NFL teams are mad for coordinators, even if department heads don't always make the best CEOs. It's also why, where Fields is concerned, the most important man in Halas Hall will not be Matt Eberflus, but whoever he chooses as his offensive coordinator.

As the knight said to Indiana Jones: Choose wisely.