GREEN BAY, Wis. — Heading into this season, when Bears general manager Ryan Poles’ popularity was at its peak and coach Matt Eberflus was being eyed warily, Poles objected to the idea that the team’s ugly win-loss record was solely on Eberflus. He disagreed with separating the personnel department from the coaching staff, saying the credit should be shared equally.
There’s nothing to share anymore.
The Bears’ disastrous season, their most thudding disappointment in six years, ended Sunday with a meaningless 24-22 win over the Packers at Lambeau Field. They pulled it out on Cairo Santos’ 51-yard field goal as time expired.
The details are moot, though it was telling that the Bears needed one touchdown on a trick play on special teams and another set up by a takeaway just outside the red zone. And that was with the Packers playing backup quarterback Malik Willis most of the game.
There is no one left to take the blame other than Poles. He spent the past calendar year getting rid of Eberflus, Justin Fields, Luke Getsy and Shane Waldron. The cleanup from the Ryan Pace era has long been over.
It’s just Poles now. He has full ownership of this 5-12 season and the Bears’ 15-36 record during his three seasons in charge. That includes going 3-15 in the NFC North and 4-24 against teams that finished with winning records.
That mess is entirely of Poles’ making.
The errors trace back to the initial choice of Eberflus over candidates like Dan Quinn, Kevin O’Connell and Mike McDaniel and the subsequent slapdash of hiring of Getsy as offensive coordinator.
He then retained Eberflus at the end of the 2023 despite having done more bad than good, and the two embarked on a boondoggle search for a new offensive coordinator that ended with Waldron — probably the ninth-best candidate of the nine they interviewed, including Kliff Kingsbury.
Poles then entrusted No. 1 pick Caleb Williams to that group and sent him out for his rookie season behind an offensive line he severely misjudged as good enough. When 80% of something needs to be replaced, it’s well short of minimal standards.
The defensive line needs new starters, too, other than pass rusher Montez Sweat.
And at the center of the Bears’ problems is whether the core Poles built truly is talented enough. He’s planning to build around Williams, wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, tight end Cole Kmet, Sweat and cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon.
The Bears are as far as ever from Poles’ goal to “take the North and never give it back” as they’ll watch the Lions, Vikings and Packers in the playoffs. Those teams each won more than twice as many games as the Bears, and any could reach the Super Bowl.
The gap between the Bears and everyone else is inexcusably wide going into Poles’ fourth season, and it’s going to take more than one offseason of a new coaching staff, draft picks and free agents to shrink it.
This likely is Poles’ last chance to deliver a winner. Bears president Kevin Warren made a strong statement in Poles’ favor last month, and all indications are that he’ll stand by it and have Poles run point on the coaching search. Poles is scheduled to speak to the media Tuesday, another sign that he’s staying.
Warren’s affirmation also was a fairly transparent ultimatum. Once something like that needs to be said, it’ll be said only once. It’s all on Poles now.