Kevin Warren stated the plan was for Ryan Poles to remain GM of the Chicago Bears moving forward. The team president feels there have been enough positive indicators that Poles is learning and has the team on the right path. Some wonder if that was a good idea. One can understand trying to project some form of stability right after firing the head coach midseason. However, committing to a GM with a 14-32 record (now 14-33) seems unusual. To say nothing of the fact that they’re giving him a chance to hire another coach after his last choice was a complete disaster.
Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune spoke to several people around the NFL about the situation. All of them seemed to share the same mindset. If Warren is smart, he would ask serious questions about whether Poles deserves a second chance at this point.
Within league circles, some wonder whether a full reboot still may be considered in the coming weeks, particularly with the stakes of the coaching search the Bears are embarking on.
“You can’t just blow past the discussion on culpability,” one league source said last week. “And you’re not going to convince many people that Eberflus was the sole problem inside that building. So what is Poles’ culpability in all of this? Someone needs to get to the bottom of that and explain it in full. His record is identical to (Eberflus’).”…
…“If I’m Kevin Warren,” one league source said, “I owe it to myself to ask difficult questions about what had been sold to me about Eberflus’ leadership and why (Poles’) vision was so out of whack with what unfolded.
Kevin Warren has to look at the facts.
The mark of a successful GM is how his players perform, regardless of who the coach is. Good players tend to still be good even if the coaching isn’t the best. Ryan Pace proved this. Despite having an over-the-hill John Fox in charge, the former GM still drafted two players (Jordan Howard and Eddie Jackson) who made a Pro Bowl in his first three seasons running the team. That will not be the case for Poles. None of his picks in the first three years will claim such an honor. The only players to do so are Montez Sweat, Jaylon Johnson, and Roquan Smith.
Sweat was a trade acquisition from Washington. Johnson was drafted by Pace. Smith achieved his success after getting traded to Baltimore midseason. What does Poles have to hang his hat on at this point? Caleb Williams is having the best rookie season in Bears history. Great, he’s doing this while getting sacked 58 times and having three different offensive coordinators. It is a complete mess that has Poles’ fingerprints all over it. Kevin Warren cannot and should not ignore that.
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