Thomas Brown doesn’t let anything slide.
“[He] has a certain demeanor about him, whether it’s showing up on time and getting on the guys,” Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said after his first practice under the Bears’ interim head coach, “Whether they’re older guys, younger guys … making sure accountability is really important in football teams and business and family. He’s done a solid job so far with that, and holding me accountable, holding all the guys accountable. He’s a lead-by-example type of guy and that’s been great.”
“Accountability” had been a buzzword all season under former coach Matt Eberflus — from the time the leadership council met with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron after a Week 3 loss to the Colts and pleaded to be coached harder.
In fact, the issue was severe enough that players started taking matters of accountability into their own hands “a few weeks back,” defensive end DeMarcus Walker said, when ask if the Bears were being coached differently under Brown.
“I feel like the players have taken the lead, where if we don’t see plays being run right, or there’s a mess-up or a mental error, we’ll start the whole play over,” Walker said. “I think we’ve done a great job of taking over and doing that the correct way.”
The Bears (4-8) began a new era with their first practice under Brown, who was named the Bears’ interim coach when Eberflus was fired Friday following a 23-20 loss to the Lions at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day — their sixth consecutive loss.
Though Brown’s manner and approach are starkly different from Eberflus, operational changes were minimal in the opening preparation for Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium. With the Bears 12 games into the season, Brown wasn’t in position to make significant changes even if he wanted to.
As the head coach, he now wears the Bears hat with the script “B” on it — an honor reserved for the Bears head coach going back to team founder George Halas. And when asked about changes that players will notice, he told reporters that after struggling for weeks to lose weight, he has lost 22 pounds — down to 203 — since he was promoted to offensive coordinator Nov. 12.
He was just joking, he said. But even that marked a difference from Eberflus, who often struggled just to answer the question and kept his sense of humor in-house.
Brown will be a little more amiable, but also a little more demanding, which is probably the way they prefer it.
“I’ll be myself. I try to bring energy every single day,” Brown said. “I am a very direct person. I try to be engaging in front of the group, but not entertaining. I don’t care about entertaining them — but delivering the message, being clear and concise, but also collaborating with the entire staff, and our players as well.”
One noticeable change on Day 1. The Bears will hold their media access after practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Under Eberflus the Bears held media access before practice, but after the team’s walk-through.
“It was about trying to get our guys to be more efficient to how we do walk-throughs into practice, instead of having a break inbetween,” Brown said, “so we can get down in the building and do quality work.”
But even though there were not many operational changes, players still noticed they were now being coached by Thomas Brown – “being a man of action and getting right to the point,” as linebacker and co-captain T.J. Edwards said.
“He’s done a good job since the start of the week just setting his expectations for what he wants to get done,” Edwards said. “Operationally, we kind of do what we do, but I think he has just done a good job of keeping everyone on the same sheet of music.
“I think we appreciate the way he goes about it, and just how he spoke to leadership today — he was to the point and understands what we need to get done and wants to go do it.”
It remains to be seen how much of a difference that will make in Brown’s five-week trial as head coach. But for now he has what he needs most from his players — their attention. Brown literally has them on the edge of their seats. So if the new approach is going to resonate, now is the time.
“Everything he’s telling us right now is very intentful and all of us are locked in,” guard Teven Jenkins said. “Everybody is sitting at the front of their seat, leaning in. You can see when somebody’s actually attentive and you can see that everybody in the whole team room is very bought-in to what he’s been saying.”
Brown comes in with a big advantage. He inherits a team that, while it respected Eberflus, welcomed the change — despite the awkwardness of it happening during the season. After going 14-32 the past three seasons under Eberflus, Brown doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel. He represents the change the Bears need.
“The main thing is winning,” Jenkins said. “If we’re put in the best spot and that’s TB [Brown] to do it, I think the whole team is very excited to see what he can do this Sunday and help lead us to another win.”