Lance Briggs was part of three distinct eras of Chicago Bears football during his playing career. He arrived at the end of the Dick Jauron run in 2003, recognizing the staff was likely on the way out. Then, he enjoyed a lucrative run of success under Lovie Smith for most of his career. Finally, the seven-time Pro Bowler watched everything fall apart when Marc Trestman took over in 2013. Briggs has a firm grasp of what good and bad regimes look like. After examining who runs the Bears and how they operate, he is convinced of one thing.
This is the Trestman era all over again.
Many factors contribute to this. A lack of accountability from the head coach is a big one, as is failing to fix both sides of the football. However, the strongest indicator for Briggs was the weird rules instituted, including no foul language on Hard Knocks. Trestman did those exact same things. Little things like that led to the slow alienation of the locker room.
Lance Briggs kept it real.
Keep this in mind. The parallels between this regime and the Trestman era are closer than you realize. Phil Emery was hired as the next GM after serving as a director of scouting for the Kansas City Chiefs for three years. He had connections to Chicago from his time there as a scout. Ryan Poles also came from Kansas City as a former scouting director. He also had ties to the Bears, having signed with them as an undrafted free agent in 2008.
Then, you shift to the head coaches. Both Trestman and Matt Eberflus weren't hot names on the circuit when they surfaced. Trestman was in the CFL, and Eberflus was the defensive coordinator of a middling Indianapolis Colts team. Both were on the older side—Trestman was 57, and Eberflus was 52. Both ran schemes that were considered outdated.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Lance Briggs nailed it.
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