Whatever that was supposed to be Sunday afternoon in Santa Clara, Calif., it was altogether unsightly. A Chicago Bears team that many around the league expected to be climbing the NFL mountain this season was continuing its tumble over the edge.
In a first half as rocky as it was listless, the Bears offense had more punts (five) than total yards (4). And their once-stingy defense was no better, surrendering 391 total yards before halftime as the San Francisco 49ers racked up eight plays of at least 20 yards on the way to a 24-0 lead in an eventual 38-13 rout.
From Row 2, Seat 43 inside the Levi’s Stadium press box, Bears general manager Ryan Poles stared down on the mess, on a team that appeared disconnected, emotionally spent and totally directionless, and he was left to process all he was seeing. In the first game after the Nov. 29 firing of coach Matt Eberflus, the Bears were absolutely throttled, suffering their worst defeat in what is now an astonishing seven-game losing streak.
As it turns out, there may be no bottom for this season’s embarrassment and humiliation. There is certainly no promise the Bears will win again. So now what?
What will happen at Halas Hall if this painful skid ticks up to eight games, nine, 10, 11?
Is Poles’ job security truly as strong as Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren emphasized last week?
If so, should it be? And why?
Three days after Eberflus’ firing, Warren’s voice was firm as he tried to reduce the gray area within his team’s direction.
“I want to make sure we’re clear,” he said from a podium at Halas Hall. “Ryan Poles is the general manager of the Chicago Bears. And he will remain the general manager of the Chicago Bears.”
That declaration — as unwavering and explicit as it sounded — came during a news conference called to address the first in-season firing of a head coach in the Bears’ 105 seasons of existence. Eberflus was the coach Poles hired in January 2022 and the leader he doubled down on just 11 months ago, confident the Bears were on the brink of a meaningful breakthrough.
Yet 46 games and 32 losses into Eberflus’ tenure, it became obvious to the entire football world that change was necessary, particularly after an astounding bout of game mismanagement in the final minute of a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving.
Just like that, it was all over for Eberflus. Yet it was only just beginning for the Bears’ recovery efforts.
Warren offered public support for Poles during a time of great unsteadiness, trying to create a perception of stability as the Bears work through a demanding cleanup project for this fiasco of a season. Almost as if he were reintroducing the leader of the team’s football operations, Warren lauded Poles as young, talented, bright and hard-working.
“He has done everything in his power on a daily basis to bring a winner to Chicago,” Warren said. “And I’m confident in Ryan.”
Warren also identified Poles as the point person for the forthcoming coaching search while stating they would work together closely during a process they vowed will be organized, diligent and exhaustive.
“We will do it the right way,” Warren said.
Seated to Warren’s right, Poles listened to that endorsement and the rest of an eight-minute opening statement from his boss and barely looked up.
To those in attendance and many around the league who watched, Poles — who declined the Tribune’s request to be interviewed for this story — appeared defeated, maybe even embarrassed. His demeanor matched the mood of an unrelenting surge of failure that has seen the Bears go without a victory since Oct. 13.
Within league circles, some wonder whether a full reboot still may be considered in the coming weeks, particularly with the stakes of the coaching search the Bears are embarking on.
“You can’t just blow past the discussion on culpability,” one league source said last week. “And you’re not going to convince many people that Eberflus was the sole problem inside that building. So what is Poles’ culpability in all of this? Someone needs to get to the bottom of that and explain it in full. His record is identical to (Eberflus’).”
It was anyway. Until Sunday in Santa Clara.
Now Poles (14-33) has one additional loss.
From the outside, Poles’ job performance will continue to draw elevated scrutiny. But will the evaluation inside Halas Hall carry equal intensity and, perhaps, lead to another significant change?
With four games remaining, it’s difficult to rule anything out.
‘Why does he get to save his job?’
By retaining Poles amid justifiable outside speculation about his long-term job security, the Bears have created at least one potential deterrent for prospective coaching candidates. They might worry about a) working under a boss with a mismatched timeline to theirs and b) uniting with a still-green GM who’s perceived to be stuck in the prove-it stages of his development.
Asked last week how he would address such concerns, Poles nodded.
“We can talk through that,” he said. “We’re open to talk through that. You could just ask around in this building and with how we treat people, that shouldn’t be an issue at all.”
For some, though, it will be.
Said one former AFC executive: “What big-time coach is going to sign up, no questions asked, to work with Ryan Poles right now? If you are a serious candidate, you’ll need to ask yourself — and more importantly them — what is the level of belief in Ryan and where exactly does it stem from?
“It sounds harsh. But the first question I’m asking is, ‘Why does he get to save his job?’ And I’d want to walk away with absolutely zero reservations about their answer.”
With the state of the Bears being heavily scrutinized, performances like Sunday’s only further the perception of an organization that feels discombobulated at best, dysfunctional at worst.
Therefore it’s critical that the Bears remember they aren’t simply selecting their next coach. That coach must choose them as well, seeking evidence this job is as attractive and stable as the team has advertised.
To that end, Poles and Warren should be preparing to be peppered with pointed questions as they cast their net in the weeks ahead. Candidates will want clear details on how the power structure will function and how Warren fits into that puzzle. They will want in-depth explanations for how such a promising 2024 season went so wayward.
They will want to know much more about Poles’ future too.
Said the former AFC executive: “Every top candidate that is being sought after is going to want to explore and exhaust their options with every possible (coaching) opening out there, as opposed to simply taking a leap of faith that the Bears will get everything figured out.”
Perhaps, as the Bears did with Ryan Pace before their 2018 coaching search, they will grant their GM a contract extension to marry the timeline of the new coach. That’s certainly one option. But it also seems imprudent to reward Poles in that way given the trajectory this season is on.
What might happen if, say, like Eberflus, Poles’ job performance continues to dip over the next year or so, accelerating his undoing and shoving a new coach into a predicament in which he’s suddenly working for a new GM who didn’t hire him?
There’s also the matter of Poles’ GM capabilities, which will be inevitably sized up, candidate by candidate, throughout the coaching search.
Mixed results
As involved and complex as an NFL general manager’s job is, the biggest priorities remain fairly straightforward:
- Establish leadership and direction within the coaching ranks.
- Prioritize coaching-staff stability and development.
- Build and fortify a championship-contending roster.
- Stabilize and elevate the quarterback position.
Those are all categories on which Warren must center both his performance review of Poles to date and his future projections for the GM.
In the latter two departments, it’s reasonable to argue Poles has achieved at least a passing grade. Late in his rookie season, Caleb Williams continues to flash the kind of playmaking prowess, drive, leadership and resilience that are prerequisites for playing quarterback at a high level in the NFL. And he is doing so while surrounded by a team that, despite what Sunday’s blowout loss seemed to indicate, has enough talent to compete with anybody in the league.
Poles put all of that in place.
Still, the roster is far from complete. And significant questions remain about Poles’ ability to identify the ideal coach for the next phase of the journey.
His track record to this point doesn’t do him any favors. He not only hired and reaffirmed his belief in Eberflus as the Bears’ preferred leader, but he was in lockstep with his coach during an offensive coordinator hunt last winter that ultimately landed Shane Waldron after the Bears also interviewed Kliff Kingsbury, Klint Kubiak, Thomas Brown, Greg Roman, Liam Coen, Zac Robinson, Greg Olson and Marcus Brady.
The Bears took comfort in the fact Waldron had previous play-calling experience and noted how he had worked closely with multiple starting quarterbacks during his three seasons as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator and three before that as the Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator.
Poles and Eberflus were confident Waldron’s teaching ability would become a catalyst for Williams’ early growth.
“When you have an elite teacher like Shane, he’s able to make the complex simple and the irregular regular,” Eberflus told the Tribune last spring. “That’s what an elite teacher does. And he’s able to do that with a complex offense. You can really feel that. … After Shane finished his (second) interview, we were like, ‘OK. That’s it. He’s the one.’ ”
Poles also zeroed in on what he identified as impressive adaptability in Waldron. He believed Waldron had proved he could adjust not only to unforeseen situations within games, but also with his interactions from player to player. Those skills, the Bears were convinced, would aid the evolution of an offense that was reinventing itself after a significant personnel overhaul.
“Through the interview process,” Poles told the Tribune last spring, “I was blown away by his communication skills with us.”
In retrospect, the Bears badly misjudged how Waldron would connect with players at Halas Hall or acclimate to the challenge of pushing a highly touted rookie quarterback. Thus when the offense wheezed — and Williams struggled — through three consecutive losses coming out of the bye week in late October, discontent within the locker room caused Waldron’s hourglass to break wide open.
He was fired after just nine games overseeing the development of the No. 1 draft pick.
That, too, fell under Poles’ watch. And when he was asked last week where his evaluation of Waldron had gone wrong, his answer was vague.
“Obviously there was some communication that probably didn’t happen as clean as it needed to be,” Poles said. “And we just got off to a tough start. It’s always difficult when you have a young quarterback. We built this to have support around Caleb.
“But when you have that blend of a young, rookie quarterback with experienced players, to make that all work, it’s a difficult task. And I think there was a little bit of a struggle just getting that going.”
Coaching instability
As for that goal of establishing direction in the coaching ranks? In a word: yikes.
Since Poles’ arrival less than three years ago, nine Bears coaches have been fired or, in the case of former defensive coordinator Alan Williams, resigned abruptly amid off-field conduct concerns. Five other coaches departed for other jobs, with only three exiting on the up escalator.
In 47 games since the start of the 2022 season, the Bears have had six coaches calling plays on either offense or defense. Worst of all, their coaching instability this season has adversely affected the rookie season of Caleb Williams, the franchise’s most prized asset. That’s a reality that registers as nothing short of negligent.
On Sunday, Williams made his first start with Brown as his new head coach, just 21 days after making his first start with Brown as his new offensive coordinator and play caller.
Said the former AFC executive: “All that talk over the summer that Caleb was being dropped into the best situation a rookie quarterback had ever been in? I honestly thought all of that was incredibly cringe-worthy.
“Sure, they had accumulated talent for their offense. But I was looking upward inside that organization. To the coordinator. To the head coach. To the GM. To the president. To ownership. The argument could be made that they were 0-for(-5) in that regard as far as having people and structures in place that were proven in any way.”
So how, with all the confidence Warren has expressed publicly in Poles, does he now measure his GM’s culpability in the swing and miss on Eberflus as well as the Waldron hire that failed so miserably?
For now, the Bears president seems to be offering forgiveness and an opportunity for Poles to help right such wrongs.
“There are people who can find fault (with things),” Warren said last week, “and there are people who can find fault and come up with solutions. One of the things I appreciate about working with Ryan is he’s one of those people who will raise his hand and say, ‘Hey, this is something that we could’ve done better. But here are some solutions.’ And we’re committed to doing that.”
Even with such forward-looking sentiments — “I don’t want to burn any energy on what has happened in the past,” Warren added — the Bears are by no means downplaying the stakes of this coaching search, particularly in a division as strong as the NFC North.
“You hate saying that decisions are going to set the trajectory of the franchise over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years,” Warren said. “But this is one that will.”
Hits and misses
As the Bears work to sell their coaching opening to prospective candidates, they also might have to sell Poles, creating an in-house infomercial to highlight the GM’s achievements over the last three years.
Topping the list is the March 2023 trade with the Carolina Panthers, in which Poles dealt the No. 1 pick in that year’s draft in exchange for standout wide receiver DJ Moore and a gift basket of draft picks that has netted Williams, right tackle Darnell Wright, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and punter Tory Taylor plus an upcoming second-round pick in April.
Seven months later, Poles struck another big deal with the Washington Commanders, reeling in a top-tier edge rusher in his prime at a reasonable price. That trade for Montez Sweat cost the Bears a second-round pick, while Sweat’s contract extension required $72.9 million in guaranteed money over his four-year, $98 million deal.
For many who view the Bears coaching opening as attractive, Poles’ discipline in building his roster is encouraging. The Bears have a solidified and proven core to build around and got there without compromising salary-cap health or depleting their draft capital.
Standout players under contract for at least the next two seasons include Williams, Sweat, Moore, Wright, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, tight end Cole Kmet, wide receiver Rome Odunze and, to a lesser extent, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and running back D’Andre Swift.
The Bears also own eight selections in the 2025 draft — including four likely top-75 picks — while having substantial salary-cap room to be aggressive in free agency.
In short, they should have a roster that can be positioned for playoff contention immediately — if they can land a coach who’s an optimal fit and then navigate an opportunity-filled offseason of roster building.
Said one league source: “You don’t have to squint to see the opening to make a real run next year.”
On the flip side, it’s important to acknowledge the high-profile investments Poles made that have bombed, a list that includes drafting wide receiver Velus Jones with a third-round pick in 2022; trading a second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for volatile receiver Chase Claypool later that year; and guaranteeing guard Nate Davis $19.3 million in a three-year, $30 million free-agent deal in March 2023.
Jones had more turnovers (four) than touchdowns (one) with the Bears and was cut eight weeks into his third season. Claypool lasted just 11 months, playing in only 10 games before his petulant behavior triggered his departure. And Davis’ 20 months in the organization were defined by a lack of reliability, with the veteran making only 13 starts across two seasons.
The Bears released Davis last month, a few days after what multiple sources said was a squabble with the coaching staff over his role for the Week 10 game against the New England Patriots. After practicing in full that entire week, Davis reported back tightness to the team medical staff on the morning of the game, was declared out and sent home on a day when offensive line depth was an issue.
That was the final straw for Davis, who had been known around the building for more than a year as an “always something” guy and a poor teammate. It didn’t help that Poles signed Davis despite in-house warnings from the coaching staff that he had a reputation for being apathetic and lacking the kind of football passion Poles normally gravitates toward.
That miss exemplifies Poles’ struggles to fortify the offensive line. Beyond Wright, it’s hard to pencil in any of the other four current starters as obvious answers for 2025. After Sunday’s loss, the Bears rank in the bottom 10 of the league in rushing and have allowed the most sacks in the NFL.
The defensive line isn’t much more formidable. And when it comes to the 10 selections Poles has made in Rounds 2-4 — Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, Jones, Gervon Dexter, Stevenson, Zacch Pickens, Roschon Johnson, Tyler Scott, Kiran Amegadjie and Taylor — it’s fair to wonder how much momentum he has created for his team to become a regular championship contender.
A head-scratching hire
Perhaps all those roster missteps would be less glaring had Eberflus materialized into the dynamic coach Poles thought he would become.
Before becoming a general manager, Poles spent years creating a checklist of leadership traits he wanted to identify in a head coach, an index that included, in his words, “poise, emotional intelligence, a development mindset, discipline, detail, toughness and energy.”
Eberflus, Poles surmised during the 2022 interview process, checked all of those boxes.
In retrospect, that evaluation seems grossly misguided. But even at the time, the Eberflus hiring left many around the NFL scratching their heads. Not only had Poles, a 36-year-old first-time GM, pushed in all of his chips on a first-time head coach with whom he had no prior working relationship, but he formalized Eberflus’ hiring less than 48 hours after he accepted his own new job in the Bears front office.
Inside league circles, many wondered why Poles had been so enamored with a candidate who hadn’t generated much buzz and wasn’t highly sought after. Sure, Eberflus had done a decent job coordinating the Indianapolis Colts defense and had been a head coaching candidate in several previous cycles. And in 2022, he was a finalist for the Jacksonville Jaguars job that eventually went to Doug Pederson.
But the Bears’ initial union with Eberflus elicited more shrugs around the NFL than commendations. Multiple league sources have told the Tribune that, had the Bears not hired Eberflus, the Colts were set to fire him, and he quite possibly might have had to seek a position coach role elsewhere in the league.
Instead, Poles handed him the Bears head coaching role.
Said one league source: “When you talk about trying to find the next hot guy at such an important time for your franchise, the Bears should have been asking themselves, ‘Who else really wants (Eberflus)?’ He was red-flagged to fail immediately.”
From his earliest days on the job, Eberflus was direct in expressing the foundations of his coaching philosophy. He emphasized a desire to build an effort-based team and made intentional and extraordinary efforts to forge bonds with his players, a mission that continued throughout his three seasons in Lake Forest.
But, as one league source noted, the fact Eberflus’ attempts to connect had to be so intentional and extraordinary to begin with proved somewhat illuminating of his interpersonal skills.
Throughout his coaching tenure, Eberlus was described inside Halas Hall as “awkward,” “corny” and “inexplicably isolated at times,” even when it came to interacting with his assistant coaches.
“There was a miscalculation on the connectivity piece with Matt and his ability to rally guys,” one source said. “After a while, you run out of sayings. You run out of slogans. You run out of coaching one-liners. And when all of that runs out, who are you really? And do you still have the ability to tap into your guys so they can maximize their talents for you?”
To be clear, Eberflus was never forced on Poles — at least not by anyone employed at Halas Hall. The two share representation in agent Trace Armstrong and, per Poles’ account, had become friendly after meeting years back through mutual acquaintances.
Eberflus also came highly recommended in 2022 by Colts GM Chris Ballard, who spent 12 seasons in the Bears organization (2001-12) and also worked with Poles for four years with the Kansas City Chiefs (2013-16).
Also don’t forget that the Bears’ 2022 coaching search was spearheaded by an outside consultant: Bill Polian, whose 14 seasons in the Colts organization left him, for better or worse, with deeper connections inside that franchise.
‘You could write a book on it’
As last season came to a close, many around the league wondered why Poles remained so enthusiastic about his decision to retain Eberflus for 2024, despite the gift-wrapped opportunity to consider a full coaching reboot that would have timed up better with drafting a quarterback with the No. 1 pick.
At that critical pivot point in franchise history, Poles made his big bet on what he perceived as Eberflus-generated momentum and direction inside Halas Hall.
Over a 53-day span in the second half of the 2023 season, Eberflus, with his defense playing at a higher level, helped guide the Bears to five victories in a seven-game stretch. It was a remarkable change of direction for a team that started the season 0-4 and had been swimming in turmoil — albeit self-created — during the first two months.
“I really think that the head coach needs to be able to captain the ship when the seas are stormy and really keep everything settled,” Poles said after last season ended. “When you’re going through hard times and he can keep everyone together, to me, that’s like the critical piece.
“In a big market like this, you have to be strong. I mean, if he’s jumping off the boat and everyone else starts jumping off the boat, it’s a hot mess. So the stability was a big piece of (the decision to keep him).”
Thus Poles felt it only fair to keep Eberflus at the helm for a third season to show what he could accomplish with a more competitive roster — even after a last-place, 10-loss season that included three horrific fourth-quarter collapses.
The Bears blew a 21-point second-half lead at home against the then-winless Denver Broncos in Week 4; were outscored 17-0 in the final three minutes of a five-point loss in Detroit seven weeks later; and squandered a late 10-point lead in a crushing 20-17 loss in Cleveland in December.
Widespread concerns also existed about Eberflus’ lack of success in developing a young quarterback, especially after Justin Fields failed to reach a new level under his oversight.
Plus, even with that 5-2 stretch from Nov. 9 to Dec. 31, Eberflus’ closing argument in his second season was a 17-9 pummeling by the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. The Bears never led, never scored a touchdown and were outgained 432-192 as their biggest rival, in its first season of the post-Aaron Rodgers era, punched its ticket to the playoffs.
Some inside Halas Hall hoped those kinds of results in measuring-stick moments would carry more weight in Poles’ evaluation of Eberflus and, at the very least, challenge the GM’s optimism and loyalty. They didn’t.
Poles trumpeted Eberflus as steady, resilient and capable of holding his teams together through adversity. He remained convinced that, under Eberflus’ guidance, the Bears would continue ascending.
Instead, 12 games into this season, Poles watched helplessly from the Ford Field press box as Eberflus bungled the final 36 seconds of a 23-20 loss to the Lions. On Thanksgiving. In front of a holiday-record 37.5 million viewers.
Seemingly frozen, Eberflus failed to use his final timeout and watched as his flustered rookie quarterback got off only one disorganized snap before the clock ran out.
Compounding the absurdity, Eberflus defended the Bears’ operation after the game, saying, “I think we handled it the right way.”
That left jaws on the floor across the league.
Said one league source who was watching that game live: “I’ve seen Pop Warner coaches coaching 10-year-olds who are looking through the earholes of their helmets who have made things look smoother.”
Added another NFL general manager: “That was difficult to watch. There was just such a lack of organization and situational understanding. And it felt like that was just a new big mistake in the comedy of errors that had been going on for a month there.”
Indeed, the Bears had lost 32 days earlier on a final-play Hail Mary at Washington after Eberflus allowed the Commanders 13 free yards on the penultimate play, then chose not to call a timeout to set his defense for the decisive snap.
The Bears scored only three points two weeks later in a stunning home loss to the Patriots. They settled for a 46-yard, game-deciding field-goal attempt on the final play the next week against the Packers — and had it blocked. And they were totally out of sorts with their communication processes before a key fourth-down failure in Week 12 during an overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The mess in Detroit turned out to be Eberflus’ 32nd loss as Bears coach, his 19th by eight points or fewer and the last game he would be allowed to coach.
The Bears fired him the next day.
“We just came up short too many times,” Poles said. “We had to make a change.”
The bigger question now is how to properly assess Poles within those breakdowns.
“If I’m Kevin Warren,” one league source said, “I owe it to myself to ask difficult questions about what had been sold to me about Eberflus’ leadership and why (Poles’) vision was so out of whack with what unfolded.
“With all the hype the Bears were generating this offseason, you would have thought they were a shoo-in for the playoffs. Eberflus had it all sitting there for him. He was given opportunity after opportunity. And not only wasn’t he great, he was horrific. You could write a book on it.”
Set up for failure?
That had been the worst-case fear of Bears fans and others around the league who identified warning signs with Eberflus’ leadership well before this season began. Many critics openly wondered if Poles had unwittingly set up himself and the entire organization for failure by backing his handpicked coach for a third season.
What if the Bears fell well short of expectations in 2024?
What if Waldron wasn’t up to the task of getting Williams and the offense synced up?
What if, after Williams’ rookie season, the Bears were right back in the helter-skelter cycle of changing coaches less than a year after drafting a quarterback in the first round?
Asked at the NFL owners meetings in March to address those concerns, Poles eschewed all such worries and said he didn’t share even an ounce of those outside fears.
“That’s the trauma from the past that gets leaked into the situation,” he told the Tribune in Orlando, Fla. “I see Year 2 (under Eberflus) as the true reflection of what we’ve got. Now add the talent. I just think it’s kind of easy to see where it’s trending.
“You never know year to year. But I just have a ton of confidence that we’re not going to be in that situation. There is going to be stability.”
For many, the roots of Poles’ steadfast confidence in Eberflus deserve a much deeper examination, particularly if he is being allowed to embark on this next coaching search with substantial influence and so much at stake.
Some believe Poles may have gravitated three years ago toward a deferential head coach who wouldn’t make waves or meddle or be confrontational when it came to building the roster and setting the team’s big picture. Poles, it has been perceived, was the true visionary in the relationship, with Eberflus’ top priority being to mold a team that played hard and stayed together.
Added another league source: “I can’t speak with expertise on that relationship specifically. But when you are a rookie GM and you want it to be your show, I can see operating with that mindset. Even if it may be 100% subconscious.”
Who’s in charge?
So now what?
The Bears must seek answers and agree upon a vision for their new direction. As of now, it appears Poles and Warren will be working in tandem to craft the plan.
From the beginning of their working relationship, Warren has been fond of Poles and eager to aid his development in the front office. Warren said in the spring of 2023 that he aimed to be Poles’ “sunshine and his water for his continued growth.”
Warren also promised to evaluate Poles’ work as GM beyond wins and losses, with a bullet-pointed list of criteria.
“Leadership ability, work ethic, organization skills,” Warren told the Tribune shortly after being hired in 2023. “Communication skills, decision-making process, decision-making under stress, wisdom, vision, foresight, desire, passion.”
As thorough as Warren typically has been throughout his career with big decisions, he presumably will not only continue evaluating Poles in each of those categories, but also offer guidance for Poles’ improvement.
Poles himself emphasized last week that he feels three years wiser heading into this search and that he better understands exactly what the team he assembled needs from its leader.
Still, to some familiar with the inner workings at Halas Hall, the Warren-Poles union hasn’t been entirely harmonious over the past 20 months. While Poles has publicly and sincerely praised his boss’s guidance and input, he has privately worried, multiple sources said, that his power in the GM chair might slowly lose strength if Warren ever felt compelled to assert his authority.
And while Warren has talked about his ambition of raising the bar inside Halas Hall by creating what he calls “healthy pressure” to stimulate a more energized and success-driven environment, skeptics have raised concerns about potential adverse affects of that approach.
“I think Kevin is almost always well-intentioned,” one source said. “But I think his involvement can also create dynamics where a lot of people, including Ryan, may feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulders.”
That may have been a reason for Poles’ glum demeanor beside Warren at the Dec. 2 news conference. With this season’s sudden downturn and a catalogue of leadership gaffes by Eberflus, Poles had given Warren every reason to intervene and increase his oversight and involvement in the most important football matters.
In presentation alone, one league source said, the contrast between Warren and Poles at that news conference was attention-grabbing. Warren wore a business suit and kicked off the morning with his expansive, eight-minute opening statement.
Poles, in a navy Bears quarter-zip sweater, seemed much more downcast than usual. His own opening remarks were delivered with a less commanding tone and lasted less than two minutes.
As one source noted: “Watching that, there was no question to me who is in charge and who will be in charge.”
The biggest question now is how that dynamic will affect the huge decisions the Bears will be making over the next month and a half.
Perhaps, the former AFC executive suggested, this is exactly what the Bears need at this high-stakes moment in their history: a commanding leader at the top in Warren who has high standards and isn’t afraid to grab the steering wheel when he sees the bus swerving toward the edge of the cliff.
Perhaps Warren, who inherited Poles and Eberflus when he was hired, should be afforded his big swing — or at least an opportunity to coach Poles through the most important at-bat of his professional life — as the Bears reset the leadership of their football operations.
Or perhaps, as some around the league fear, the Bears have merely changed the names and faces of their most influential leaders while reenacting the same old organizational clumsiness that has doomed the franchise for decades.
Whatever the case, the coaching search can’t wait for the organization’s cleanup process to be completed. The Bears are closing in on a critical decision that, by Warren’s own admission, will set the trajectory of the franchise for the next decade or two.
“It is critically important,” Warren said, “that we put all of our energy into making sure we exhaust this search and get the right person here.”
