Replacing Matt Eberflus Begins and Ends with Ryan Poles

Although the process will be a collaboration, Bears team president Kevin Warren made clear the hiring of a new head coach begins and ends with GM Ryan Poles.

Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren address the media Monday at Halas Hall about the firing of Matt Eberflus. / Photo: Chicago Bears Video

The hiring of a new Chicago Bears coach to replace fired coach Matt Eberflus falls mainly on the shoulders of GM Ryan Poles, and team president Kevin Warren made this much clear in Monday’s press conference at Halas Hall.

What they’ll look for might be the interim coach already running the team, Thomas Brown, or the best possible replacement around the league.

“We need an individual who has extremely high standards, who is tough, who is demanding, who is bright, who has attention to detail, who seeks and will win championships, who creates an environment of accountability, who's creative, who's intelligent, who's a decisive decision maker, and who will represent the city of Chicago, all of our fans, this franchise, in a manner that is well deserved,” Warren said. “The other thing is that I found in my years in the National Football League, that good players want to become great and great players want to become legendary.

“And the only way you make a good player great or a great player legendary is to create that environment of accountability and set standards that are extreme and demanding.”

Poles was described by Warren as the “point man,” on the search, the one who has last say.

“Ryan is the general manager,” Warren said. “He’s the head of football operations, so he will have the final say if it ever got to that point.

After watching the Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles press conference, my biggest takeaway is that Kevin Warren is clearly the one calling the shots at Halas Hall. #Bears

— Jarrett Payton (@paytonsun) December 2, 2024

“But I’m confident that we will work through it because the good thing about it is so long as we keep the center of our decisions what’s in the best interest of the Chicago Bears, our players, as we go forward, it will become clear as far as who is the person to lead this franchise from a football standpoint, from a coaching standpoint.”

Even as this was said, Poles said he couldn’t rule out the possibility of a committee or search firm assisting them, which is what they’ve done in the past.

They’ll also look closely at what interim coach Thomas Brown is doing with the team in the final five games to consider keeping him in charge.

“I’m really excited about these next five weeks and the opportunity that we have but I do think that it’s critical that we focus on San Francisco for the remainder of this week as we get prepared and get our football team prepared,” Poles said. “I look forward to circling back in the near future to talk about the search as we put those plans together.”

Warren underscored Poles’ comment in relation to the critical nature of the decision they’ll make.

“As Ryan said, these next five to six weeks are critical,” he said. “And you hate saying that decisions are going to set the trajectory of the franchise over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years.

“This is one that will.”

Poles had the last hire that ended Thursday after the lost game with Detroit, but did not do a full search. He was handed Eberflus' name along with Jim Caldwell and Dan Quinn as possible choices, then hired Eberflus. He thinks this hiring can be different.

“Yeah, I’ve learned a lot over the last few years," Poles said. "I think the most critical thing is that I know from the roster that we have right now exactly what this team needs because of the core group that we have here. Before that wasn’t really the case of understanding who is going to be here. It was a really tough situation to walk in to. So knowing exactly the core of our team and what traits are going to help get that team to be a championship caliber roster.”

They’re looking for a coach because the last one they hired couldn’t finish games. Poles called this a critical factor in deciding to fire Eberflus.

“When you look at the end of the game situations, just some of the detailing to finish in those moments, we all know a lot of these games come down to those critical spots that we weren’t able to get over the hump,” Poles said.

Poles said he and Warren were aware of the discontent among players after Sunday’s loss and before. A decision could have been made earlier to fire Eberflus before they reached the six straight losses they now have.

“It’s hard to go back and figure out if everything would’ve been different, but I want to make sure that we see a process through and not make a split decision,” Poles said. “Just like we talked about from after Thursday, there’s times where you’ve got to reflect back, see what maybe some of the issues are, is there a system problem, and is it repetitive enough to make a move at that time.

“Working through each of those weeks, we saw a little spurt in the three-win streak that we had there, and then we started going down this recent path where things started getting a little bit more repetitive and that’s when eventually we got together and had that conversation (to fire).”

The firing process itself has come under criticism because Eberflus had to do a press conference acting as if he’d be back to coach the 49ers game two hours before his dismissal.

Warren called this a matter of timing and being thorough.

“This was not a five-minute conversation,” he said. “When you’re talking about decisions that you’ve made about not only individual’s lives and careers, but we were very thoughtful. And the other thing that was really important is the fact that we not only played in Detroit. That’s Thanksgiving Day.

“And I have just learned over my career that it’s important to try to at least get a good night sleep, which I don’t think any of us did Thursday night, but at least try to think clearer and be respectful to make better decisions. And I think once we had an opportunity to discuss this at length, we felt that Friday was the right time to do it.”

The end result is someone who can take the North and not give it back, as Poles so famously put it in 2022 when he was hired.

Warren believes they’ll have no problem finding qualified candidates because of the favorable situation available.

“It is really special in all of sports,” Warren said. “We’re going to have plenty of salary cap space. We have a young talented roster. We have strong draft capital in the upcoming draft.

“And we have a quarterback in Caleb Williams who’s shown that he’s very special, and in the right environment, he can become even more special than he already has shown.”

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