Bears News: Brown on beating Green Bay, potentially becoming head coach next season |
CHICAGO - Thomas Brown may not have had the most illustrious head coaching career during his five games as interim head coach, but he certainly gave fans a game to remember in the season finale with a 24-22 win over the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field.
“Obviously excited for that locker room, the feeling of winning, the feeling of a couple of firsts - beating the Packers in a while, first win of the year,” Brown said. “(I) made a point of (emphasizing on) allowing those guys to finish the right way.” That loss gave Green Bay the No. 7 seed in the playoffs where they will face the Philadelphia Eagles, who they lost to in their season opener in Brazil. After the season the Chicago Bears have had, including their offensive coordinator and head coach getting fired mid-season, that victory was a good way to enter next season with some positive momentum. Of course, the Bears need a head coach before they can look too much toward the future. Brown is one of the people Chicago is looking at to fill that position. While he does not have any previous head coaching experience in the NFL besides being the interim coach for the Bears this year, he has already developed a relationship with the players in the locker room and everyone in the building already knows his coaching style and mentality. This is something Brown sees as an advantage for him going into the interview. “I think them having a chance to see me in the building, something that to me, should be more impressive than everything else. The situation I had a chance to take over, having three different jobs in the same season which I’m not sure that’s happened before in the history of football,” Brown said. “The approach that I’ve had every single day in the building, of the mentality I brought to the group and I understand the results. (I) understand the expectation as far as everybody assumes stuff gets changed because you snap your fingers. That is not how change happens. Change happens over time. I think oftentimes when you’re making radical changes, things get worse before they get better.” Developing a relationship with quarterback Caleb Williams is also of utmost importance for the new head coach as Williams goes into his second season in the NFL. Brown and Williams seem to mesh well, as Williams likes honesty from his head coach, while Brown does not sugarcoat anything. This could also give him an advantage in the head coach search. “One of the difficult parts about the quarterback position that I found is people baby the quarterback too much and they worry more about being liked by the quarterback than tell him what he needs to hear,” Brown said. “It is by far and away the most difficult position to play. We all know that. But, to whom much is given, much is acquired and so, I think one of the things we connected on at the beginning was I was honest from the get-go about what I wanted to bring to the table but also what issues I saw in him. But, my overall goal (was) about making him the best he can be. That is my goal in that role and the roles moving forward.” There are a lot of teams looking for head coaches including the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Las Vegas Raiders. Thus, for top candidates like Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, there are options and with how dysfunctional Chicago looked at times this season, this could be a deterrent for some candidates. However, Brown does not feel that way after his stint as head coach and believes the Bears are not as far away as people believe. “Probably not as far away as people think we are when it comes to those missing pieces,” Brown said. “But to me, it’s more about just the mentality, the culture change and just the daily approach when it comes to putting yourself in a spot to go compete at the highest level.”
