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Bears President Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles discuss Eberflus firing, coaching search and more

Posted on by Taylor Reeves
Bears President Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles discuss Eberflus firing, coaching search and more

Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren and General Manager Ryan Poles spoke to members of the press Monday at Halas Hall. It was the duo’s first meeting with the media since Matt Eberflus was removed as the team’s head coach. Warren and Poles discussed a variety of topics during Monday’s press conference, with much of the conversation revolving around the firing of Eberflus and the upcoming coaching search.

I’ve summarized some highlights and provided context, depth, insight and other comments along with some quotes from Bears executives. Enjoy!

  • From top: Bears president Kevin Warren says general manager Ryan Poles will serve as “the point man” in the team’s search for a permanent head coach. Warren said he and the Poles will work together in the search for a head coach. Asked what would happen if the two had differing opinions, Warren said that Poles would have the final say. Even if it Is Although the Poles make the final decision, it still feels like Warren will have a say in the matter.
  • Ryan Poles says he wants to cast a wide net when looking for a coach and take his time to make the right decision. Unless the Bears do something unforeseen and make the playoffs, their offseason begins on January 6th. This gives the Bears a little over a month head start. If the Warren-Poles tandem doesn’t put this to good use, it’s all a waste.

    • REPORT: The Bears are targeting a certain type of head coach candidate

  • Warren says he is “grateful for the responsibility” and says the powers that be will allow him and the Poles to conduct this search “the right way.” I think we’ll come back to this quote (from Sean Hammond) when the smoke clears on this search:

    • “We have the full support of the McCaskey family, who have provided us with the resources to create what will be a championship environment, not only during the search, but also upon the arrival of our new head coach.”

  • I hope this isn’t just lip service, because it would be nice if the duo leading the coaching search were given all the resources to attract the best possible coaching candidate. The last thing this fan base wants to see is the team settling for a second division contender due to self-imposed financial constraints.
  • Warren is confident the Bears won’t fumble the sack. “We’ll get this done,” Warren said. “And we will sit up here at some point in the future and look at this as the day we really started to move in the right direction.”
  • I liked this quote from Poland when discussing the firing of Matt Eberflus: “Ultimately, we came up short too often. We had to change something.”

    • MUST READ: Details from the Bears’ locker room after their ugly loss in Week 13

  • Warren brought up the timing of the Eberflus shooting and spoke about it from the perspective of the events surrounding Thanksgiving. It seems as if the vacation and travel are putting the team in a time crunch. Warren sounded like he and Poles might have made the decision Thursday night but didn’t want to make the final decision in the heat of the moment. Therefore, they will have to wait until Sunday to make the final decision after a meeting with Chairman George McCaskey.
  • This Warren quote sticks with me (via Courtney Cronin of ESPN):

    • “I can tell you that. When coach Eberflus had his press conference, we hadn’t made a final decision yet… Looking back, could we have done better? Absolutely. But during his press conference and a few hours later, we had not yet come to our decision.”

  • The Bears are (rightly) left unclear about the timing of the firing in the coming hours after Eberflus held a press conference in which he said he was confident he would be the team’s head coach for its Week 14 game against the 49ers will be. Given the way Warren discussed things, I wonder if they were wondering if it would be worse to fire a bus on a holiday or if they did it. The correct answer probably would have been to do it on Friday before the press conference. Would it have been the worst thing to postpone it? After today, that’s all water under the bridge anyway.
    • Bears Ryan Poles Matt EberflusBears Ryan Poles Matt Eberflus
    (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
  • “This will be the most coveted job in the National Football League this year,” Warren said. That seemed to be a consensus among the announcers on the NFL shows on FOX and CBS over the weekend. With that in mind, the Bears need to show prospects that this is the case. After all, actions speak louder than words. For once, I want the franchise’s actions to back up its words. Otherwise we just replay the same movie but with different actors playing characters we know.
  • My biggest takeaway from the press conference is that the Chicago Bears are Kevin Warren’s team. I like that the Bears have a president who acts like he’s in charge. The Chicago football team has tried to establish a functioning organizational hierarchy but has failed at every turn. But right now, the power structure looks like this: President Kevin Warren is at the helm, general manager Ryan Poles reports to him, and the head coach to be named later reports to Poles. That’s how most functioning NFL teams work, and it was a long time coming for the Bears to get involved.
  • Warren speaks powerfully, decisively and confidently. It’s a stark contrast to the sound of Ted Phillips at press conferences. I don’t know if this means the Bears will be better off in the future, but I appreciate it when someone in a position of power speaks directly.
  • One thought I can’t shake: Ryan Poles didn’t seem comfortable at that press conference. I try not to read too much into the body language, but it was impossible to ignore. Perhaps part of that had to do with Warren taking over the press conference from above, speaking for nearly eight minutes before Poles could speak at the microphone. Hopefully the Poles will be in a more relaxed state at the end-of-year press conference to discuss updates on the team’s condition.

    • Chicago Bears Press Conference – December 2, 2024

    You can watch the full press conference with Bears President Kevin Warren and General Manager Ryan Poles below:

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