Hub Arkush: Eberflus believes solid foundation, great teaching will win the day

PALM BEACH, Fla. - If Bears fans and analysts are underwhelmed by the team's first trip to the free-agent market under general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus, Tuesday at the NFL's annual owners meetings, Eberflus sounded like he might be right there with you.

"I thought we addressed some of the issues that we had in terms of depth issues with the offensive line, the defensive line, the receivers that we acquired, we feel good about those," Eberflus said. "And then the linebacker piece that we acquired, we're excited about that."

Depth is nice, but with the loss of as many as 10 starters to free agency, many had hoped the team would do more.

Parsing words can lead to misinterpretations, and I'm not suggesting Eberflus isn't happy with his new troops, but he is preaching patience and the long view first.

"I think you have to have (patience)," Eberflus said. "When I was younger maybe I looked through a straw, but I think now you have to look that way. You always gotta have a microscope and a telescope.

"You have to be able to look and see down the road, but you also have to come back to your (situation) and I think that was really the basis of that. You gotta look at the whole roster, where are you going to add pieces?

"What can you do with the shifting and the allocation of funds, and where's it going to go in the future? And I think that's what the club looked at, and that's what we're excited about going forward."

For a rookie head coach hoping to energize his fan base, Eberflus is beyond laid back. But Eberflus' easygoing attitude appears to walk hand-in-hand with his determination to be the head coach of the Bears for a long time - not just the defensive guru that earned him the job in the first place.

That was a mistake Matt Nagy made and never recovered from.

I asked Eberflus how different it would be for him working on the offensive side of the ball and how involved he'd be in design and scheme.

"I met with each individual coach, offense and defense, to go through the development of each player during the course of this time, the nine weeks," Eberflus said. "I went and sat for 45 minutes to an hour with each coach and talked to them about what's the plan for each guy, because that's what matters.

"Where's this guy at in his skillset and where does he need to be in nine weeks because that's what's most important is developing these players. How do we improve?"

Eberflus will be preaching his H.I.T.S. philosophy on both sides of the ball now.

"To have great effort and hustle, that's the whole football team," he said. "To have great intensity, that's mental and physical intensity, everybody needs that.

"Taking care of the ball and taking the ball away, a good football team does that. And then being smart situationally, being smart as a football team. It does apply to everybody."

But what we're learning more and more every day is the new guys are prepared to walk for a while before they run.

How will Eberflus maintain his calm, even-keeled demeanor?

"I just think it comes from, well, No. 1 your faith," he said. "So I stand on solid ground. For me, the wind is going to blow, and there are going to be storms, and there are going to be things that hit our facility that are unforeseen. You can't predict it. And I think you've got to stand on solid ground and part of that is the foundational pieces of my faith.

"I've been doing this 30 years. Now I'm the head football coach of the Chicago Bears and I've seen a lot of ways to do it, and a lot of ways not to do it.

"I feel very confident in the way we're going to do it, and the pieces we've brought together in terms of the men that we have, the staff and bringing in the right players to do the job."

Remember year one of the last Ryan and Matt show?

Clearly this duo is prepared for something less but hoping it will be a lot more real when/if it happens.