Kevin Warren shows he’s in charge as the Bears try to find the right coach to lead the team

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles sat silently at the podium.

He didn’t say a word for almost 8 1/2 minutes.

Poles wasn’t stoic, he was just being arrogant by his boss, President/CEO Kevin Warren, who began Monday’s “We fired Matt Eberflus three days ago” press conference with a long monologue that let everyone know that he has the say.

As Bears chairman George McCaskey looked on, Warren talked and talked, and the Poles sat there looking smaller than his 6-foot-4. He looked miserable and you would have too. Aside from the embarrassment, the reason for our gathering was that the Bears had failed in historic fashion under the leadership of the Poles. What is there to smile about?

President and CEO Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles speak to the media https://t.co/QDLNv46kCW

– Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 2, 2024

In the Bears’ long, checkered history, 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 entered the game with the Poles in 2022, was so bad in obvious late-game coaching situations that he had to be fired the day after Thanksgiving as Bears players and fans were still filled with horror and bile.

It was absolutely necessary to break with previous precedents and not only was it a good step for the future of the organization, but the right timing allowed the Poles to get a head start in finding the right man to fill Eberflus’ empty tracksuit to get.

Because if Poles doesn’t do this right, in a few years there will be a press conference declaring his dismissal and he won’t be around to talk about it at all.

Go deeper

The Bears ultimately fired Matt Eberflus. But he lost the locker room a long time ago

In the final episode of Hard Knocks – which should be re-watched like The Blair Witch Project – the Poles famously said: “It’s time to win.” Of course, he also said at his opening press conference: “We will win the (NFC) Take North and never give it back.”

You know what, maybe he shouldn’t talk.

Thursday’s loss in Detroit increased the Bears’ division record under Eberflus to 2-13 with three NFC North games remaining this season. The 2024 team was 4-2 at the bye and is now 4-8 with five games remaining under interim coach Thomas Brown. If they win twice I would be shocked.

Brown, who had just replaced Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator, is now applying for the full-time head coaching job. He spoke on Monday and you can see why everyone likes him so much. He is confident, funny and comfortable in his own skin. But as good as the offense looked in the last few weeks, it didn’t produce enough points and obviously had zero wins. Brown should get an interview, but at this point that’s about it.

On the one hand, I could see the Bears being lazy enough to hire him and trumpet that they found “our Mike Tomlin.” But Warren appears to have higher expectations than promoting from within or hiring the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator.

Interim coach Thomas Brown has five games left this season to prove he is the Bears’ best choice. (Daniel Bartel/Imagn Images)

“This will be the most coveted job in the National Football League this year,” he said.

I like his confidence. But if that were true, then most of the argument would have to do with quarterback Caleb Williams, who showed promise in a difficult rookie season.

Is it true? I think many trainers would be happy with the job, and certainly every trainer’s agent would want their clients mentioned in the job, but there will be those who would rather go elsewhere. Especially if they were paying attention. “Head Coach of the Bears” has the longevity of a Major League Baseball hitting coach, meaning you 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 will have staying power as GM. In fact, they should be able to trust that the Poles can do this job. Sure, he can outsmart the Carolina Panthers, but what else has he done?

To me, this seems more like another mismatch scenario created by the Bears than a sunshine-and-touchdowns job opportunity, but perhaps I’ve just watched this team too long to be optimistic.

One reason I’m skeptical is Warren, who has made it clear he will have an important voice in this move.

Warren was hired in January and the focus of his job was to get the team’s new stadium situation sorted out, and that didn’t happen. The Bears own land in Arlington Heights and Warren appears determined to keep the team in the city despite several hurdles.

I think it’s a lot easier (and more fun) to hire a new coach than to figure out where to put a stadium and how to pay for it. But Warren wakes up before the rooster crows, giving him time to get deeply involved in both searches that will determine the future of this franchise.

“As Ryan said, the next five to six weeks are critical,” Warren said. “And you hate to say that decisions are going to dictate the evolution of the franchise over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years, this is one that will do that.”

Regardless of whether you think Poles has done a good job so far or not, I think he should have the opportunity to hire his next head coach based on his job title alone. Maybe he’ll screw it up again, but at least it won’t be a shotgun wedding like last time.

Go deeper

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In his opening statement and in his answers to follow-up questions, Warren said he would be much more than just a sounding board. The Pole will be “the main actor”, but he will be very involved.

“Now we’re going to work together,” Warren said. “We will work closely together. We will work together daily to ensure 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 is being organized. It will be busy. We’re going to do it right.”

When Warren was asked who has the “final say” on hiring, he replied:

“One of the things we’re focused on, again, is that the final word is doing the right thing in the best interest of the Chicago Bears,” he said. “So I’m confident. I never worried about the last word or whatever. Ryan, he’s the general manager, he runs our football operations, he’ll be the point of contact. We remain in touch, as we have done for the last 72 hours. We will spend several hours a day until we make this adjustment. From a final say standpoint, he is ultimately the general manager, but I think working together will make it very clear who the right person is for the Chicago Bears.”

I pointed out to Warren that they might have different opinions on two finalists, for example. Someone has to make the call. Who does that?

“We’ll get it done,” he 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 because the good thing is that we’re at the heart of our decisions as long as what’s in the best “It is in the interest of the Chicago Bears and our players, it will become clear as we move forward who is the person who will lead this franchise from a football perspective and from a coaching perspective.”

Not exactly an inspiring response for Poles, who was hired two years before Warren moved from the Big Ten Conference. Who wants their boss to make a decision for which only one person can be held accountable?

The Poles said they had not identified who else will be involved in the hiring, but he used the term “think tank,” marking the first time anyone associated those words with Halas Hall in a non-mocking way. Never forget that it was a Bears recruiting committee that interviewed Bruce Arians and Trestman and selected Trestman.

But that’s all history, right?

“Let’s put the past in the past,” Warren said. “Let’s start today and move forward together because I don’t want to waste energy on what happened in the past. We can learn from it. We all know we can do better and we will do better.”

You know, I think we’ve heard this before up in Lake Forest.

“We’re going to make it and continue to sit up here,” Warren said. “We will look back on this day and say this was the (starting point) … to build the franchise that we all know we want to build.”

I think we heard that up here too.

But as Warren noted, there is much to be learned from the past.

He would be wise to listen. Because in Halas Hall the past is constantly repeating itself and the only thing that changes are the names.

Required reading

(Top photo of Ryan Poles listening as Kevin Warren speaks: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)