GM Ryan Poles has done impressive work retooling the Chicago Bears’ roster this past year. The trade acquisitions of D.J. Moore and Montez Sweat have been tremendous. T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds are earning their money as free agent additions. Darnell Wright, Gervon Dexter, and Tyrique Stevenson have all made considerable impacts as rookies. It is clear the Bears are trending in the right direction. However, Poles isn’t immune to criticism. He has made his share of mistakes.

The two most prominent were the trade for Chase Claypool and the hiring of Matt Eberflus as head coach. The latter has proven more destructive to the Bears’ plans lately. While Eberflus has done well getting the defense up to a capable level, most of his other efforts have flopped. His handpicked offensive coordinator looks like a bust. His defensive coordinator resigned. He’s only won eight games in two years, and three of his most recent losses involved coughing up double-digit 4th quarter leads.

Poles must own this mistake.
He took the gamble of hiring a defensive coach, knowing they traditionally have had trouble developing young quarterbacks. Except there has been an underlying rumor for some time that the Bears GM didn’t entirely have a say in Eberflus’ hiring. Former team scouting director Greg Gabriel finally confirmed this on Windy City Gridiron.

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“Up until last week’s loss at Cleveland, I felt that Coach Matt Eberflus was safe, but because of how the Bears lost that game, my feeling is different.

I now feel that it’s better than a 50/50 chance that the whole coaching staff will be let go following the Green Bay game…

…If, in fact, a coaching change is made, I don’t envy Ryan Poles. The decision he makes will be the most important decision of his life to date. Unlike two years ago when Mat Eberflus was hired, Poles will be part of the entire process. If you remember, two years ago, Poles was hired, and then shortly thereafter ‘Flus was hired. Poles was given a list of finalists. This time, he will make that list.“

Ryan Poles got pigeonholed from the start.
Typically, a GM is hired and then conducts the coaching search for a team. In the Bears’ case, they decided to conduct both simultaneously. The Bears, led by former GM Bill Polian and team chairman George McCaskey, built an extensive list of candidates and began conducting interviews. By the time Poles was hired, they had narrowed their list of preferred coaches down to a small handful. Included were Eberflus and former head coaches Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell. Poles has a prior relationship with Eberflus. They formed a strong connection. That, along with a coaching style similar to Lovie Smith, was enough to convince the GM he was the right choice.

It is hard not to wonder what might’ve happened if Ryan Poles had been part of the search from the beginning. Maybe he would’ve gone in a different direction. He could’ve hired Shane Steichen, who’d turned Jalen Hurts into an MVP candidate and now has Indianapolis in the playoff hunt. Or maybe he would’ve snagged DeMeco Ryans before Houston did. Whatever the case may be, the Bears once again muddied a head coaching search when they didn’t have to. The same thing happened with Ryan Pace and John Fox in 2015.

Pace got his second chance in 2018 when he opted for Matt Nagy. That didn’t work out. Maybe Poles will have better luck.