Ryan Poles Looking for HITS Men in Indy

At the scouting combine, GM Ryan Poles will interview players seeking those who can get in line with Matt Eberflus' HITS philosophy.

There are going to be some very interesting meetings held between the Bears and players at the combine, as well as in free agency.

When Matt Eberflus first started talking at his introductory press conference about his HITS system, eyeballs rolled.

It's his achronynm for hustle, intensity, takeaways or preventing them, and smart play. For some, it sounded like a bad meatball prep coach's attempt to fire up players or maybe something Saturday Night Live motivational speaker Matt Foley would say before returning to his van down by the river.

Beauty in this case is in the eye of the user and not the beholder.

The players are using it, not smug, elitist media members or grumbling fans.

Colts like Darius Leonard sure doesn't mock this approach because it's more than a mere catch phrase, but is married to a point system for grading players.

The idea with the approach on defense is to create more turnovers by flying to the ball and playing fast. After four years when the Bears were telling everyone turnovers are random events, this has to create hope.

Eberflus had described belief in the system almost as "fanaticism" but it worked.

The Colts, after all, were using it and were top 10 in takeaways four straight seasons. So much for happenstance. No wonder Leonard said he loves this approach.

The philosophy requires vigilance, though.

Hey @ChicagoBears fans, want goosebumps? Here’s new GM Ryan Poles…

"It's surreal... They've created this hallway when you enter and as you walk down the white lights start to go off & it's Payton, Sayers, Butkus, and it gives you intent everyday to live up to that standard." pic.twitter.com/OVIkfDXVqN

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) March 2, 2022

"I think it's the day-in and day-out proccess of it," Eberflus told media at the combine. "When you're coaching it, every snap in individual (drills), to start in our first phase (of workouts) when we get them on the field as soon as we can put a ball out there, we're going to start talking about it and coaching it every single play and we don't let that go. 

"So that's what I mean by fanaticism. And we don't let that go."

The Bears might have their Leonard in Roquan Smith, but GM Ryan Poles said he'll obviously look at film to pinpoint other players who can play this way in the 4-3 defense or take a similar approach in Luke Getsy's offense.

"It's fast, physical guys that attack relentless, that have endurance, that can do it for a long period of time," Poles said. "And that's pretty easy to see on tape, not that there's a ton of them everywhere but those guys stand out because they play with a different mindset."

Finding the mindset will be on Poles. While players work out at the combine, they also get interviewed by teams. Poles is thinking he can also identify HITS men by talking to them during the team interviews in Indianapolis, at pro days or at visits to Halas Hall.

"There's guys that when they sit down they have just a different way about them, and the way they describe how they play and why they play the game, what motivates them," Poles said. "So that's what I'm looking for is that substance behind the player, of like, why do I do something really hard every day, why do I practice hard, why do I want to be special? Because that's what sets a lot of these players apart.

"They don't just go play. They have intent on why they play the game."

Poles has bought into this approach, as well. Otherwise, he might have been more interested in Jim Caldwell or Dan Quinn as the head coach.

"If you ask those guys (Colts), and I've heard them talk in different settings, that first impression, those first first couple of practices are going`to be hard," Poles said. "They're going to be really hard. But he's just setting the standard for how we're going to play football.

"And from there the foundation gets built and it gets contagious and everyone starts to do it. And then when you play and have success again, now the light goes off and everyone wants to play at that temperature, with that aggression, with that passion."

The play level becomes self-sustaining. 

One of the great problems owner George McCaskey identified with the team under GM Ryan Pace had been lack of consistency. They achieved a division title, and then a wild card berth, but couldn't sustain a higher level.

It's up to Poles and Eberflus to find these players at the combine and in free agency to get the ball rolling toward that level, so to speak.

Then the entire operation rolls easier, in theory.

And if it doesn't work? They'll all be living in a van down by the river, but how would that be any different than most seasons since 2006 and Super Bowl XLI?

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven