Breaking: How Thomas Brown Plans to Spark the Bears as Interim Head Coach

The Chicago Bears fired Matt Eberflus early Friday morning following another disastrous performance on Thanksgiving against the division-rival Detroit Lions. In his place, the Bears have elevated interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown to interim head coach. Brown went from passing game coordinator to head coach in less than a month. Don’t let anyone tell you there isn’t room for career growth when working for the Bears.

Before Brown’s first promotion to interim offensive coordinator, only the truest of Bears fans knew who he was. However, since he took over play-calling duties, fans couldn’t help but notice the offense take off, and in particular, Caleb Williams’ play had significantly improved.

But just who is Thomas Brown? Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports dove into Brown’s background as a former running back who eventually became a running backs coach. He received his first NFL job with the Los Angeles Rams as a running backs coach in 2020. The next season, Brown was promoted to assistant head coach to go along with his running back duties. That year, the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. In his final season with the Rams, Brown moved from coaching running backs to tight ends. Brown was ready for another promotion after his three seasons under Sean McVay.

From there, Brown ended up in Carolina, where he started the season as offensive coordinator before calling plays for a coach who was eventually fired (sound familiar?). Because of his previous experience, the Bears felt comfortable handing Brown the play-calling (and Williams’ development ) following Shane Waldron’s departure.

Now that Brown has been given full reins of the team, how will it impact operations moving forward? His personality and demeanor are vastly different than Eberflus’s, and that should resonate with a locker room that continuously saw a head coach taking zero responsibility for the late-game blunders that occurred during their six-game losing streak.

However, it’s fair to question if this is too many changes too quickly for a candidate the Bears themselves didn’t view as worthy of being the offensive coordinator just a few months ago when he was bypassed for the job he held as of a few hours ago. It’s also fair to question how this series of changes will impact the continued development of Williams, who has just started to find a groove with Brown as his primary coach.  It stands to reason that Brown will continue with play-calling duties, but the head-coach role comes with more responsibilities, and the hope is that Brown’s work with Williams continues to see improvement.

One thing is certain: a new voice and leader were needed in the locker room, and many thought this move was necessary. Can Brown coach well enough for the remainder of the season and shed the interim tag? Given the offense’s progress under his leadership, it seems Brown is up for the challenge.