LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears, sat silently on the podium.
For nearly 8 1/2 minutes, he didn’t say a word.
Poles wasn’t being stoic, he was just being Bigfooted by his boss, president/CEO Kevin Warren, who began Monday’s “We fired Matt Eberflus three days ago” news conference with a lengthy monologue that let everyone know he’s in charge.
As Bears chairman George McCaskey watched, Warren talked and talked and Poles sat there, looking smaller than his listed height of 6-foot-4. He looked miserable and you would have too. Beyond the awkwardness of it, the reason we were gathered together was because the Bears had failed in historic fashion under Poles’ stewardship. What’s there to smile about?
President and CEO Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles are speaking with the media https://t.co/QDLNv46kCW
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 2, 2024
In the long, winding history of the Bears, a head coach had never been fired during the season until Friday. Not Jim Dooley or Abe Gibron or Dave Wannstedt or Marc Trestman or Matt Nagy.
But Eberflus, who came in together with Poles in 2022, was so bad at obvious late-game coaching situations that he had to be let go the day after Thanksgiving, as Bears players and fans were still full of turkey and bile.
It was absolutely necessary to break with precedent there, and it was not only a good move for the organization’s future, but the timing allowed Poles to get a head start on finding the right guy to fill Eberflus’ empty sweatsuit.
Because if Poles doesn’t get this right, there will be a news conference explaining his firing in a couple of years and he won’t be around to talk at all.
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In the final episode of “Hard Knocks” — which should be rewatched like the Blair Witch Project — Poles famously said, “It’s time to win.” Of course, at his introductory press conference, he also said “We’re going to take the (NFC) North and never give it back.”
You know what, maybe he shouldn’t talk.
Thursday’s loss in Detroit pushed the Bears’ division record to 2-13 with three NFC North games left to play this season. The 2024 team was 4-2 at the bye and is now 4-8 with five to play under interim coach Thomas Brown. If they win twice, I’ll be shocked.
Brown, who had just replaced Shane Waldron as the offensive coordinator, is now auditioning for the full-time job as head coach. He spoke on Monday and you can see why everyone likes him so much. He’s confident, funny and comfortable in his own skin. But as decent as the offense has looked in recent weeks, it hasn’t resulted in enough points and obviously in zero victories. Brown should get an interview, but at this stage, that’s about it.
On one hand, I could see the Bears doing the lazy thing, hiring him and trumpeting it as finding “our Mike Tomlin.” But Warren seems to have higher expectations than promoting from within or hiring the defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts.
Interim head coach Thomas Brown has five more games this season to demonstrate that he is the best choice for the Bears. (Daniel Bartel / Imagn Images)
“This will be the most coveted job in the National Football League this year,” he said.
I do like his confidence. But if that were true, most of the reasoning has to do with quarterback Caleb Williams, who has shown great promise through a trying rookie season.
Is it true? I think a lot of coaches would be happy with the job and certainly, every coach’s agent will want his clients mentioned with the job, but there will be those who would rather go elsewhere. Especially if they’ve been paying attention. “Bears head coach” has the longevity of a Major League Baseball hitting coach, which is to say you’ll last a few years and then get blamed for everything.
The perfect coach would have to be enamored with Williams (unlike Nagy and Mitch Trubisky) and confident that Poles has staying power as the GM. In fact, they’d have to be confident that Poles can do this job. Sure, he can fleece the Carolina Panthers, but what else has he really done?
To me, this seems more like another Bears-created mismatch scenario than a sunshine-and-touchdowns job opportunity, but maybe I’ve just covered this team too long to be able to think optimistically.
One reason I’m skeptical is Warren, who made it clear he’ll have a major voice on this move.
Warren was hired in January and the focus of his job was to get the team’s new stadium situation in order, and that hasn’t happened. The Bears own land in Arlington Heights and Warren seems dead-set on keeping the team in the city, despite several hurdles.
I guess it’s a lot easier (and more fun) to hire a new coach than figure out where to put a stadium and how to pay for it. But Warren wakes up before the rooster crows, so he’ll have enough time to be heavily involved in both searches that will determine the future of this franchise.
“As Ryan said, these next five to six weeks are critical,” Warren said. “And you hate saying that decisions are going to set the trajectory of the franchise over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years, this is one that will.”
Whether or not you think Poles has done a good job so far, I think he should have the opportunity to hire his next head coach by himself, just by virtue of his job title. Maybe he’ll screw it up again, but at least it won’t be a shotgun wedding like the last time around.
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In his opening statement, and in his answers to follow-up questions, Warren said he will be much more than a sounding board. Poles will be “the point person” but he’ll be very involved.
“Now we will work in tandem,” Warren said. “We will work closely. We will together on a daily basis to make sure that we bring the best person to the Chicago Bears as our permanent head football coach. You have our word on that. It will be an exhaustive search. It will be organized. It will be diligent. We will do it the right way.”
When Warren was asked who has the “final say” in the hire, he responded:
“One of the things, again, we’re focused on, is ‘final say’ is doing what’s right for the best interest of the Chicago Bears,” he said. “So I’m confident. I’ve never been concerned about final say or whatever. Ryan, he’s general manager, he leads our football operation, he’ll serve as the point person. We will be in contact, just like we were over the last 72 hours. We will spend multiple hours a day until we make this hire. So from a final say standpoint, I mean, ultimately, he’s the general manager, but I think in working together it’ll be very clear who’s the right person for the Chicago Bears.”
I pointed out to Warren that they might each have different opinions on, say, two finalists. Someone has to make the call. Who does it?
“We’ll work that out,” he said. “Ryan is the general manager. He’s the head of football operations, so he will have the final say if it ever got to that point, but I’m confident that we will work through it because the good thing about it is so long as we keep the center of our decisions what’s in the best interest of the Chicago Bears, our players, as we go forward, it will become clear as far as who is the person to lead this franchise from a football standpoint, from a coaching standpoint.”
Not exactly an inspiring answer for Poles, who was hired two years before Warren came over from the Big Ten Conference. Who wants to have their boss lording over you for a decision that only you will be held accountable for?
Poles said they haven’t figured out who else will be involved with the hire, but he did use the term “think tank,” which is the first time anyone has associated those words with Halas Hall in a non-derisive way. Never forget, it was a Bears hiring committee that interviewed Bruce Arians and Trestman and picked Trestman.
But that’s all history, right?
“Let’s put the past in the past,” Warren said. “Let’s start today and go forward and work together because I don’t want to burn any energy on what has happened in the past. We can learn from it. We all know that we can do better and we will do better.”
You know, I think we’ve heard that before up in Lake Forest.
“We will get this right and we’ll be sitting up here in the future,” Warren said. “We’ll look back on to this day and say this was the (starting point) … to build the franchise that all of us know that we want to build.”
I think we’ve heard that up here too.
But as Warren noted, the past can teach you a lot.
He’d be wise to listen. Because at Halas Hall, the past keeps repeating itself and the only thing that changes are the names.
Required reading
(Photo of Ryan Poles listening as Kevin Warren speaks: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
