When Ryan Poles was the Chiefs’ college scouting coordinator on 2011, general manager Scott Pioli could have conducted an all-out search for a new head coach after firing Todd Haley late in the season, but instead retained Romeo Crennel, the Chiefs’ interim head coach.
It didn’t work out. Crennel went 2-14 in 2012 and the Chiefs had to start all over again. But the error on Crennel also pushed the Chiefs into a better coaching cycle in 2013 and owner Clark Hunt took advantage of it — hiring Andy Reid four days after Reid had been fired by the Eagles.
Timing is everything. And no matter how good you are, or think you are, being at the right place at the right time is one key to success.
Now it’s Poles who has a chance to turn a big mistake into a huge success. Staying with Matt Eberflus after last season instead of aligning Caleb Williams with an offensive-minded head coach could have been a fireable offense after the 2024 Bears season spiraled out of control. Instead, it bumped Poles into the next hiring cycle, and on paper the Bears have made the most of it.
Ben Johnson is not Andy Reid. But the former Lions offensive coordinator was the No. 1 get in this year’s cycle, certainly among coordinators and probably even including veteran NFL coaches Pete Carroll and Mike McCarthy. NFL observers from coast-to-coast are surprised, if not stunned, that the Bears got it right.
Johnson is the perfect fit the Bears needed last year, with Williams incoming. Maybe the Bears could have hired Jim Harbaugh, maybe they couldn’t. But Johnson is arguably the next best thing.
For now, it’s a big win for Poles, whose stock had plummeted before hiring Johnson. Three years ago, he hired Eberflus less than 48 hours after being hired as GM and introduced him as “my new brother” at his introductory press conference in 2022.
“The moment he walked through the [door] I knew he was the guy. Especially when he started going through his plan,” Poles said.
This time, Poles didn’t even need a face-to-face meeting. A lot of background research helped put Johnson at the top of his list. One virtual meeting via Zoom confirmed it.
“Just the clear vision — how to put a winning football team together,” Poles said. “He hit on a lot of the accountability, discipline, now we’re going to work to get where we need to get to — some of the things I know we fell short on this year. I’m confidence he’s going to address those things pretty quickly.”
Poles and Johnson connected quickly, in part through their Boston College roots — Poles played there from 2003-07. Johnson was a graduate assistant in 2009-10. It was almost like former GM Phil Emery and Marc Trestman bonding over their affinity for the “Criminal Minds” television show in 2013.
“It was pretty quick,” Poles said. “It’s kind of crazy — there’s a lot of crossover with people that we’re really close to. Actually we found out that he worked in a small cubicle that I did when I was at Boston College just a year after, which is kind of crazy to think about.
“But a lot of our friends, a lot of people that we trust-connected both of us. And then when we got on the call and spent time with each other, there was just a vibe to it that was awesome.”
After a tumultuous year, it’s almost like fate moved its huge hands to give Poles a lifeline. Even the Lions’ loss to the Commanders seemed fortuitous, giving the Bears a chance to close the deal Monday instead of having to wait until next week. And drafting Williams paid off as well. It seems pretty clear that — ironically — Williams gave the Bears the edge over Tom Brady and the Raiders.
“Having a quarterback helps,” Johnson said.
That’s the x-factor at this point. The Chiefs didn’t get the full benefit of hiring Andy Reid until Patrick Mahomes came along. Poles just gave himself a better chance of hitting that jackpot.