Was Ryan Poles And Matt Eberflus A Forced Marriage? In A Way, Yes

One of the most frustrating things about George McCaskey ever since he took over as team chairman is how messy the hiring process has been for new GMs and coaches. There has never been anything precise about it. He insisted Phil Emery keep Lovie Smith for a year in 2012. Perhaps the most glaring example was when he insisted that Ryan Pace hire veteran coach John Fox rather than conduct the search alone. Pace acquiesced, but it became clear that marriage was never entirely harmonious. One is left wondering if McCaskey did the same thing to Ryan Poles.

Rumors have persisted that McCaskey handed his GM a short list of three coaching candidates he and his search committee liked from their own interviews. Already, that entire process was questionable since one would think a team would want to hire a GM first. While it was never outright demanded, there is a belief Poles was pressured to pick one of those options. Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron said as much.

This was somewhat corroborated by Adam Hoge of CHGO last year. He made it clear that while McCaskey never outright said one of those three options had to be the guy, he insisted it would be great if Poles took them seriously. With a cordial relationship with Eberflus already in place, the GM quickly made his choice. The head coach was hired only two days after Poles took the job.

Not once was the search ever expanded.

“I think it’s perfectly fine if the Bears at this point say, hey, look, here’s three files. Ones on Dan Quinn, ones on Matt Eberflus, ones on Jim Caldwell. These are the three guys we’ve already talked to. Here’s everything we talked about in our interviews with them. Hand them over, say, please take these guys seriously because you know, we really believe in them.”

“But from that point on, you’re the guy we hired as the general manager. You know, as long as you do your due diligence on these guys, you talk to them yourself. You can go hire the person that you want to hire. That’s that’s all I’m saying.”

Ryan Poles fell into the same trap as Pace.

While he may have had more wiggle room than his predecessor, the fact remains McCaskey again appeared to muddy the process. Now the Bears seem stuck with another failed head coach as Eberflus sits at 3-16 so far in his career. It is the worst start any coach has had in franchise history. Justin Fields appears to have regressed at quarterback, and the team is mired in countless controversies. It feels increasingly likely that Eberflus might be out of a job when the season ends, and some wonder if Ryan Poles should follow him.

He signed off on the hire, after all. Yet some argue that it was never really his choice because of how McCaskey approached the situation. One source informed SM that Bill Polian had a lot of influence on the process, which would explain why Eberflus and Caldwell were both finalists. Each had direct ties to Indianapolis, Polian’s former team.

It’s the Pace problem all over again. He got a free pass on the Fox hire since it wasn’t entirely his choice. He led the search for the next coach and settled on Matt Nagy. Everybody remembers how that went. Nagy got stuck with Pace’s choice at quarterback. They played that out for three years. It underwhelmed. When Nagy finally got the QB he wanted in Fields, it was too late.

It feels like the Bears are repeating the same mistake with Poles all over again.