Matt Eberflus became the first man to earn a second interview with the Chicago Bears last week. He made a strong impression and seemed like the kind of leader they were looking for. However, George McCaskey and his search team didn’t want to jump the gun. There were other candidates they liked and also they still didn’t have a GM in place yet. Until that happened, it was best to keep looking around. A week later, Ryan Poles arrived.
The big fear at that point was whether McCaskey would do the same thing he did back in 2015 with Ryan Pace. Basically, assign him a veteran head coach in John Fox due to the new GM’s inexperience. A decision that proved disastrous. Seeing Eberflus get the job, a lot of people will assume that is exactly what happened. However, the opposite appears to be true. According to Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog, there were two favorites for the head coaching job at the time of Poles’ arrival.
Former Lions head coach Jim Caldwell and Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Caldwell had big advocates in Bill Polian and Tony Dungy, two Hall of Famers that helped Chicago with their search. The remainder of the search team including team president Ted Phillips preferred Quinn. There were also rumors that Poles himself was a big fan of Quinn as well. Over the next two days, the young GM met with all three men. After some careful contemplation, he went with Eberflus.
There were two distinct Coach camps in the lead up to Ryan Poles’ hiring. Polian/George wanted Caldwell. Ted & rest wanted Quinn.
Poles went his own way.
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) January 27, 2022
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An NFL exec who’s interviewed Eberflus: “Honest, has integrity and will hold players accountable. Compares personality-wise to (Sean) McDermott. His system defensively: emphasis on effort, fundamentals and taking ball away…multiple on D and can morph into players’ strengths.”
— David Haugh (@DavidHaugh) January 27, 2022
Bears fans got what they wanted. Ryan Poles made his own decision. There was no outside pressure involved. Eberflus won him over. It is that simple. It isn’t hard to see why. The man comes across as intelligent and meticulous as a teacher. He can motivate his players in a variety of ways and is known for holding them accountable on everything. Nothing less than maximum effort will be acceptable under his watch.
He might not be the flashy new toy everybody wanted, but it looks like Poles got himself a solid football coach.
