Hiring a head coach was one thing Ryan Poles didn’t seem to learn at GM school in Kansas City.
The Chiefs hired three head coaches in Poles’ 13 seasons in the personnel department. After striking out with Super Bowl coordinator Todd Haley and veteran retread Romeo Crennel, they swung for the fences in 2013 — needing just four days to hire Andy Reid, who had made the playoffs in nine of his 14 seasons with the Eagles.
When Poles was hired as the Bears’ general manager in 2022, he hired his first coach so quickly, he and Matt Eberflus were introducted at Halas Hall on the same day. Eberflus even then seemed like an unusual, suspicous choice: (1) Eberflus was one of the coaches the Bears had intially interviewed before hiring Poles. (2) He was hired less than 48 hours after Poles himself was hired. It seemed odd that a first-time GM — with the opportunity of a lifetime — would find such a critical hire not only so quickly, but at Halas Hall of all places. And (3) Eberflus was a client of agent Trace Armstrong, the former Bears defensive end who also happened to be Poles’ agent.
It looked like an arranged deal, as if the Bears hired Poles under the condition of him hiring Eberflus. Poles emphatically denied that. In fact, when he was asked at his introductory press conference if he could have done a more expansive search for his first head coach, he was almost defiant — “I was given that opportunity. I found him,” Poles said, pointing to Eberflus on the dais at the George “Mugs” Halas Auditorium.
Poles argument was that his search had begun long before he was hired as GM, that he had spent years defining the key traits of a successful head coach: “Leadership, poise, emotional intelligience and energy,” Poles said. “When Matt walked through the door to interview … even without knowing [him] …. He just started checking off all the boxes.
“He described a detailed plan that he had. He talked about building relationships with players and setting a new standard and most importantly, he wanted to do that with the Chicago Bears.”
Eberflus flopped, not only because he didn’t exhibit many of the qualities Poles admired that got him hired, but because there was so much more to the job than leadership, poise and emotional intelligence — like hiring offensive coordinators, and game day. And it’s not like Eberflus was a victim of bad timing or dealt a bad hand or a scapegoat, which happens in the NFL. He fired himself as much as any recent Bears coach has — and that’s saying something.
The Eberflus failure was a Ryan Poles failure, which puts the focus back on Poles’ ability to hire the right guy, a test of his evalulation of the traits that make a successful head coach and his own intution — knowing the right guy when he sees him.
This isn’t the first knock on his hiring resume. Poles also was actively involved in the hiring process for a new offensive coordinator after Luke Getsy was fired, and endorsed the hiring of Shane Waldron, who also flopped.
And sticking with Eberflus last year, when he could have lined up an offensive head coach with Caleb Williams from the start, now counts as a Poles miss as well — certainly a missed opportunity. Poles had a chance to take his own big swing at Jim Harbaugh and declined. (“I haven’t talked to Jim,” Poles said after last season. “He’s the coach at Michigan.”)
As it turned out, mis-matching a defensive head coach with Williams played a key role in Eberflus’ demise. When Eberflus failed to call a timeout after Williams was sacked with 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter Thursday against the Lions, the rookie — already on a roll — could have bailed out his coach by efficiently responding to the urgency of the moment. Instead, he dawdled, and the resulting failure was an embarrassment for Eberflus that ignited a firestorm of nation-wide criticism and sealed his fate.
Would Harbaugh or any offensive head coach have better handled a not uncommon predicament for an offensive coach — either by calling timeout or having Williams better prepared to respond to the urgency of the moment? Uh … yes.
One thing’s for sure — Poles is in no position to argue. He’s lost the benefit of the doubt. That’s what makes the upcoming hire so critical — presuming it’s his hire to make. He has to show a trait that is universally invaluable in any field — that he learns from his mistakes.
Poles did that after missing on wide receiver Chase Claypool — acquiring proven veteran DJ Moore in the trade with the Panthers for the 2023 No. 1 overall pick. But the stakes are much higher with this hire.
One big difference this time: After an unusually short process of less than 48 hours in hiring Eberflus, Poles now has an unusually long process of six weeks or more for his second hire. For a measured, even-tempered GM who values practicality, guards against group-think and avoids impulsivity, mabye what Ryan Poles needs more than anything else is time. Now he’s got it.
Unless, of course, there’s an Andy Reid out there. Then you have to pounce, and know when to take advantage of opportunity. They probably don’t teach that in GM school, either. That, apparently, you have to learn on your own.