Bears general manager Ryan Poles — a contact hitter with occasional power to this point — had a chance to take a big swing following the Bears’ 7-10 season that started and ended with discouraging losses to the Packers.
With the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft that includes at least two premier quarterback prospects in USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye, Poles had an opportunity for a clean slate heading into next season: a new head coach — perhaps a prominent one such as Jim Harbaugh — and a new offensive coordinator with a rookie quarterback.
He’ll have the new offensive coordinator and still might have the new quarterback. But he’ll have the same head coach. Without much hesitation if any at all, Poles decided to retain coach Matt Eberflus, who is 10-24 in two seasons, but improved from 3-14 in 2022 to 7-10 in 2023.
Echoing sentiments he expressed about Eberflus at midseason, when the Bears were 2-6 and had just fired running backs coach David Walker, Poles pointed to “leadership and stability” as key factors in staying with Eberflus.
“I really think the head coach needs to be able to captain the ship when the seas are stormy and really keep everything settled,” Poles said. “When you go through hard times and he can keep everyone together, to me that’s a critical piece. In a big market like this, you have to be strong. If he’s jumping off the boat and everyone else starts jumping off the boat, it’s a hot mess.”
Unlike many Bears fans, Poles was not intrigued at all by the presumed availability of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, a former Bears quarterback who has won at every stop — including a national championship with Michigan on Monday night — and has a history of developing quarterbacks.
“No, I haven’t talked to Jim,” Poles said. “He’s the coach at Michigan.”
Asked if he considered Harbaugh at all, Poles was resolute: “No. We’re going with Matt and I gave you the reasons why. I didn’t go talk to anybody.”
Firing Eberflus almost seemed like a fait accompli when the Bears were 2-7, with two assistants having departed under unseemly circumstances — defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned on Sept. 21; Walker was fired on Nov. 1.
But in a big turnaround, Eberflus’ return seemed almost certain when the Bears won five of seven games in the second half of the season before losing to the Packers 17-9 at Lambeau Field in the season finale.
It was unlikely Poles would fire Eberflus — the coach Poles hired just 48 hours after getting hired himself in 2022 — after just two seasons. Not with legitimate signs of progress to point to. The Bears won four more games in 2023. Their run defense improved from 31st to first in the NFL. They tied for the league lead in interceptions (22). Even their offense improved from 28th to 20th in yards and 23rd to 18th in scoring. The arrow is generally pointing up heading into 2024.
The Bears were 1-7 against winning teams in 2023 and lost three games after leading by 10 or more points — against the Broncos, Lions and Browns. But Poles was looking for reasons to keep Eberflus, not fire him.
“The detail that he coaches with,” Poles said. “Taking some of the mistakes from the game, bringing them to practice and making sure we’re doing things the right way — I saw a lot of progress in that. There’s a reasons why we went from three to seven wins.”
Poles said the decision to keep Eberflus was his call, but in consultation with president Kevin Warren and chairman George McCaskey.
“The nice thing about this is we were all on the same page,” Poles said.
