The Chicago Bears are 0-3 to start the 2023 season. They look like the worst team in the NFL once again, boasting an ugly mixture of listless offense and porous defense. Already, calls are going out for the organization to clean house. Justin Fields? Gone. Matt Eberflus? Gone. Ryan Poles? That last one is more challenging for some fans. They know the young general manager inherited Fields. He still hasn’t gotten to pick his own quarterback. However, his selection of Eberflus as head coach is looking like a monumental swing and miss.
That means team president Kevin Warren has a decision to make. If the Bears decide to keep Poles, it would mean allowing him to hire another head coach. That seems like a dangerous gamble, given his first choice. So, I looked back at several GMs who got to hire a second head coach during their stints in charge. Here are the results.
Jon Robinson (Titans)
- Mike Mularkey
- Mike Vrable
Dave Gettleman (Giants)
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- Pat Shurmur
- Joe Judge
Ryan Pace (Bears)
- John Fox
- Matt Nagy
David Caldwell (Jaguars)
- Gus Bradley
- Doug Marrone
Thomas Dimitroff (Falcons)
- Mike Smith
- Dan Quinn
Reggie McKenzie (Raiders)
- Dennis Allen
- Jack Del Rio
Mark Dominik (Buccaneers)
- Raheem Morris
- Greg Schiano
Jeff Ireland (Dolphins)
- Tony Sparano
- Joe Philbin
Not an inspiring list for the most part. There are only two cases where the organizations clearly upgraded with Vrable and Del Rio. Every other instance was a downgrade or more of the same.
Ryan Poles hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt.
It would be one thing if his coach pick showed some decent signs but never quite got things going. That is what happened with Fox. This is entirely different. Eberflus has looked like a disaster for several months. He’s 3-17, the worst 20-game start in franchise history. He has lost 13 straight games, and his defense has allowed 20 or more points in every game since their loss to Dallas last October. Everything has spiraled out of control since then. When a team invests tens of millions of dollars and ten draft picks into a roster, and it somehow looks worse than the year before, it screams of coaching issues.
That falls at the feet of Ryan Poles. Next to the quarterback position, there is no more important decision for a GM in this league than the head coach. Phil Emery got it wrong. Pace got it wrong twice. It appears Poles got it wrong as well. If he couldn’t identify the right guy the first time around, then there aren’t many reasons to trust he will nail it on the second try. The odds aren’t favorable.
