To this point, all indications are that Ryan Poles will remain the Chicago Bears’ GM next season. Maybe that changes, but the fact that he’s still doing public interviews this close to Black Monday suggests the organization plans to keep him. That means what Kevin Warren said is true. Poles will lead the upcoming search for a new head coach. Plenty of Bears fans are not happy with this. They feel the GM hasn’t earned the right to get this opportunity, especially after his first choice proved such a fiasco.
Then again, it’s not surprising. The McCaskey family kept Ryan Pace despite winning only 14 games in his first three seasons. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t afford the same opportunity to Poles. That leaves only one question. What is he looking for in the next head coach to finally get this team over the hump? Poles spoke with Jeff Joniak on ESPN 1000 about the state of the franchise as the season draws to a close. He was asked about his criteria for the next coach. He made one thing clear.
Background doesn’t matter. He wants somebody who can finally give the Bears a competitive edge on Sundays.
The former coach basically torpedoed the Bears’ season because of constant mismanagement in end-of-game situations. He never seemed prepared for the big moments, and by extension, neither were the players. It was the Hail Mary in Washington, the blocked field goal against Green Bay, the 3rd and long breakdowns against Minnesota, and the timeout debacle in Detroit. If the Bears had a head coach who could keep his nerve and make the right decisions in those situations, they might win all of those games.
Obviously, the concern is whether Ryan Poles knows how to identify that type of coach. He signed off on hiring Eberflus. If the GM couldn’t determine whether he had the necessary chops for the job, there is no reason to think he suddenly has it figured out this time around. The only hope is that Kevin Warren’s connections will put the Bears in contact with a better crop of candidates.
