Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren sat alongside general manager Ryan Poles Monday at Halas Hall and said they would work “in tandem” to find the team’s next head coach.
Warren said Poles would remain the general manager and be the “point person” to identify Matt Eberflus’ replacement, who became Friday the first head coach fired mid-season in the history of bears.
Citing the Bears’ salary cap space, young roster, upcoming draft capital and, of course, rookie quarterback Caleb WilliamsWarren called the Bears’ opening “the most coveted position in the National Football League this year.”
He promised a comprehensive, detailed and organized coaching search and expressed confidence in the Poles, who hired Eberflus in 2022 and retained him until this season. Eberflus finished his career with the Bears with a 14-32 record. Bears named offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, interim head coach for the last five matches.
“Ryan is young. He is talented. He’s brilliant. He works hard,” Warren said. “He did everything in his power every day to bring a winner to Chicago. And I trust Ryan. My faith remains strong in Ryan.
This will be the Bears’ first head coaching search for Warren, the former Big Ten commissioner and Minnesota Vikings executive who was named team president in January 2023.
When Warren was initially asked who would have the final say on a coaching decision, he gave a 112-word answer about how he and the Poles would work together, spending several hours a day identifying the right person to the Bears. Pressed on what would happen if they had dissenting opinions, he ultimately declared that the Poles would have the last word.
“We’re going to fix this,” Warren said. “Ryan is the general manager. He’s the head of football operations, so he’ll have the final say if it ever comes to that, but I’m confident we’ll get there. … As long as we keep at the center of our decisions what is in the best interest of the Chicago Bears, of our players, as we move forward it will become clear as to who the person is that will lead this franchise from a standpoint football, from a coaching point of view.
During a 21-minute news conference that consisted of nearly half of the opening statements, Warren and Poles discussed some aspects of the upcoming research as Chairman George McCaskey looked on.
The Poles said they were still determining whether they would use an external or internal search committee. Poles said he didn’t know how much input Williams would have on the hiring, but said having a plan for a young quarterback would be a major requirement for the next coach.
Warren listed other qualities he will try to identify in candidates.
“We need someone who has extremely high standards, who is tough and demanding,” Warren said. “Who is brilliant, who is detail-oriented, who seeks and will win championships, who creates an environment of accountability, who is creative, who is intelligent, who is a decisive decision maker and who will represent the city of Chicago, all of our fans ., this frankness, in a well-deserved way.
The Poles didn’t have much trouble in previous searches that landed on Eberflus.
Following the firings of Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy, a Bears search committee interviewed the general manager and coaching candidates simultaneously, then hired Poles on January 25, 2022. Over the next two days, Poles interviewed the Previously selected coaching finalists including Eberflus, Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell and the Bears named Eberflus coach on January 27.
This time, Pole said he plans to cast the net as wide and take as much time as necessary to find the right candidate. He said establishing a foundation to identify what they want in a coach will be key, and he thinks knowing his roster well now will help.
“It was a really difficult situation to face (last time),” Poles said. “So knowing exactly the core of our team and what traits are going to help this team become a championship-caliber team (that will help).”
Poles is tasked with bringing Eberflus back for a third season and engaging in a process that led Eberflus to hire offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in January 2024 to replace fired OC Luke Getsy. Waldron only lasted nine games this season before the Bears fired him.
Poles said that with Waldron, there was “some communication that probably didn’t happen as clearly as it should have been” within the offense as the Bears tried to put the development Williams on the right track.
As for Eberflus, an “environment of accountability” and a “decisive decision maker” were two of the phrases on Warren’s list of coveted coaching qualities that stood out because they were areas of concern this season.
The latter, of course, appeared in the final seconds of Thursday’s 23-20 loss to the Lionswhen Eberflus did not call a timeout to help Williams execute the final plays of the game before time expired. The Poles identified these late-game issues as one of the reasons that led to Eberflus’ dismissal.
“When you look at end-of-game situations, just some details to finish in those moments,” Polonais said. “We all know that a lot of these games come down to critical points that we haven’t been able to overcome.”
Pole said he felt the players’ frustration in the locker room after the game in Detroit, and that was taken into account when making the decision.
“It’s important to always have the pulse of the locker room and understand what’s going on, because the only thing I can say is that our players, our team, played extremely hard despite adverse situations,” said Poles. “You don’t want a situation where it starts to crack, and you don’t see the same effort and energy. We are always aware of the environment and take it into account.
The Bears came under fire Friday after allowing Eberflus to participate in his usual postgame Zoom press conference with reporters — where he said he was confident he would coach the Bears this week – then fire him a few hours later.
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Warren said the Bears had not yet made a decision on Eberflus’ fate when the 9 a.m. news conference was scheduled to begin. He, Poles and McCaskey decided to meet the morning after Thanksgiving with clearer minds than that evening and were still in the meeting when Eberflus spoke to reporters.
“In retrospect, could we have done better? Absolutely, and I’ll be the first to raise my hand, yes,” Warren said. “But during his press conference and even a few hours later, we had not made a decision.”
Warren said they had a thoughtful discussion that resulted in the firing.
He called the next six weeks “critical” as the Bears line up their searches, although they are not allowed to begin requesting interviews with candidates employed by other teams until after the regular season. And he did not downplay the importance of the weeks and months to come.
“You hate to say that decisions are going to define the trajectory of the franchise over the next 10, 15, 20 years, (but) this one will,” Warren said.
The fact that the Poles are leading the search after hiring the latest failed coach injects skepticism into the Bears’ upcoming proceedings. But Warren said he thinks “this is the day we start pointing in the right direction to build the franchise that we all know we want to build.”
And he will continue to count on the Poles to help him achieve this.
“There are different types of people. There are people who can find faults, and there are people who can find faults and come up with solutions,” Warren said. “One of the things I enjoy about working with Ryan is that he’s one of those people who raises his hand and says, ‘Hey, this is something we could have done better, but here are some solutions. »And we are committed to doing so.
