Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
The Bears Have Got Their Guys
Good morning Chicagoooooooo!
Today, we enter a new era in Chicago sports. Whether it will go bad or not, we have no idea: And that’s almost the beauty of it. It also makes for a great time to get someone to subscribe to the newsletter today. There may or may be prizes coming for the best referrers next week.
On Tuesday, a video emerged of George McCaskey escorting Ryan Poles — then executive director of player personnel for the Kansas Chiefs — through O’Hare Airport. Poles was wearing nondescript clothing, while McCaskey was wearing a goddamn Bears letterman jacket and a Bears mask. Yes, the franchise that wouldn’t tell us where Matt Nagy would be watching the Bears game when he was out with COVID (spoiler alert, probably his house) or the details of Ryan Pace’s contract, also has its chairman picking up GM candidates in a Bears letterman jacket.
Later that day, it was announced that Poles would be the next general manager of the Chicago Bears.
His entrance to Chicago to sign the deal was not that different — at all, frankly — from my return to Chicago after a trip to New Orleans last year. I was also picked up by an airport escort with gray facial hair donning a Bears mask. The only difference between the two situations being that one of the older men bitched about the Bears the whole way home (they had just blown a lead to the Lions), while the other undoubtedly did his best to talk up the franchise. One of these men, of course, is my dad. The other is the grandson of the founder of the NFL and the leader of a multi-billion dollar franchise.
One of the two airport escorts also had COVID, and was actively coughing on the drive, saying, “Everyone thinks if you have a cough these days, it’s COVID,” though I won’t disclose who this was — George McCaskey or my father.
McCaskey picking up Poles at the O’Hare airport can be viewed under two lenses, or a combination of both: one is that it’s absolutely absurd Poles is being picked up at O’Hare, and not being flown in on a private jet, as would be the case if it was almost any other franchise in the NFL. The other would be that it’s endearing and honorable that the chairman of the Chicago Bears would immerse himself among the commoners to go pick up Poles’ bags for him and meet him as he got off his flight personally.
I fall between the two. Frankly, I just think it’s funny. Apparently McCaskey also had one of those signs for Poles to let him know that he was the man Poles was looking for upon his deplane. ‘Let me guess which one George McCaskey is…’
Must have been tough.
There is something familial and heartwarming about the gesture. But that’s just who the Bears are in general — a cool family story with a whole bunch of what-the-fucks? that are impossible to look past at this point.
But let’s not go down that dark road right now.
Two days later, Poles had his head coach: the former defensive coordinator of the Colts, Matt Eberflus.
This time is ours. With the Bears naming two new men to lead the franchise for the foreseeable future, I welcome you in, ladies and gentlemen, to The Honeymoon Phase.
It’s the time period where we all hear the news, hit up virtually every group chat we’re a part of to feel out the vibe, and then begin conducting “our own research.” That research inevitably, for some reason, leads us all to the same place: “You know what, I’m starting to really like these hires!”
Don’t lie, you’re doing it right now. You had questions about Poles’ Chiefs background after Nagy, and also questions because you had no idea who the hell he was prior to (maybe) two weeks ago. You had questions over Eberflus because you likely hadn’t heard his name until the last couple weeks, either, or had learned of him over the last year or two if you’re more in the weeds. Plus, you wanted someone else: Daboll, Quinn, Flores, or any of the other candidates we’ve flirted with in our heads during work days over the last month.
But by 8 p.m. ET last night, you were watching Colts Hard Knocks clips of Eberflus and saying ‘This is the guy we need’ audibly to yourself, then pointing vehemently to the Chiefs roster and saying ‘This Poles guy knows talent. He liked Mahomes!’
Plus, both are familiar faces, even if we don’t know them well.
Eberflus (above) looks like a father of a friend you knew in the suburbs of Chicago, the guy that definitely has a normal job but for some reason picks up shifts at a tavern nearby, which may or may not be to satisfy his drinking problem and spend as much time away from his family as possible.
But either way, he’s a good guy, and can offer up some great craic if you stop in for a burger and a beer.
On Poles’ end, he’s been with us before. As an offensive lineman out of Boston College in 2008, he did not make the Bears 53-man roster. Less than 15 years later, he’ll dictate who ends up on that roster.
To put that in perspective, he’s close friends with Matt Ryan, who he blocked for in college. He’s young, but already has an impressive and experienced resume.
Poles is a talent evaluator, through and through. And Kansas City has a lot of talent. How much of that is due to him? We’ll likely never know. But he has lasted there for over a decade, through multiple regime changes. Do you know how rare it is for guys in the NFL to last through one regime change, nevermind multiple?
Plus, he was one of the finalists for the Carolina GM position last year. He was a finalist for the Giants job this year, as well as the Vikings, the latter of which he cancelled on once he decided he’d be accepting the Bears position.
The immediate retort from many Bears fans is, of course: ‘Oh great, another Chiefs guy,’ of course referring to the disaster that was the Matt Nagy hire.
People feel this way for good reason, at least: in good organizations, it’s hard to examine and parse out who is responsible for what. Take Nagy, for example, who rode Andy Reid’s coattails (and continued trying to ride them even when he was in Chicago).
In my mind, this is completely different. For one, Reid may have final say on the roster, but he’s not evaluating talent. He has little to do with the job that Poles was performing. Brett Veach, the current Chiefs GM, isn’t a household name that is so good at his job that it would be stupid to credit anyone else for the franchise’s success in that area.
And while it’s hard to see exactly what Poles has done right and wrong during his time there, it’s clear he’s done a lot right. Again, he’s been there through regime changes, and he’s been a part of putting together one of the most talented rosters year in, year out.
Plus, people in the NFL love him as an evaluator. There wasn’t enough room on Twitter for all the praise from NFL insiders and anonymous GMs alike saying it was a fantastic hire.
(Then again, it does seem like anyone who has ever had a front office job in the NFL wants to fuck each other. Excuse my language, but all these guys ever say when one of their peers is hired is how much they love them. And they usually do it anonymously. Kind of suspect.)
Poles could be a good GM, he could be a bad one. But his affiliation with the Chiefs is a silly reason to be concerned. Just because Matt Nagy failed doesn’t mean anyone else from the same organization will.
And what’s the alternative? Should the Bears start going after candidates from shit teams instead? Hey, we know this guy from the Lions was definitely not responsible for any success, so I guess we should hire him.
That logic just doesn’t make sense to me. Poles was getting a job whether we hired him or someone else did. His track record and experience as a personnel man is impossible to criticize.
Reports say that he demanded, if hired, to be able to hire the next head coach. He at least had the wherewithal and gusto to do that, as Ryan Pace was basically forced into hiring John Fox once he was hired.
If Poles wasn’t hired, all signs indicate that it would likely be Jim Caldwell sitting in Matt Eberflus’ seat today. Caldwell has had a great career. He’s also 67. The Bears need fresh blood, and a new, vibrant direction.
Poles is a start, and his ability to shoo away Bill Polian and George McCaskey to hire the guy he found fit to the job, and not who they found fit for the job, is the best first step you could ask for.
I’m just glad we didn’t end up with a stale “known” in Leslie Frazier or Jim Caldwell. I know a lot of you probably came around to the idea of Dan Quinn, who at times seemed like the favorite, but he is also to a lesser extent a “known.” Sometimes knowns are good, but hell, at least Eberflus and the “unknown” is a bit more exciting.
(It appears to me that once Dan Quinn didn’t get the Bears job, he decided to return to the Cowboys. That *may* just say something about how the league views Justin Fields and — still, somehow — the prospect of being the head coach of the Chicago Bears).
Amid all of this, I read today that the Chiefs will be receiving compensation picks in future drafts because the Bears hired Poles. Ah, we keep trying to replicate the rich, and the rich keep getting richer all the while.
If the Bears got compensation picks for all the front office and coaching candidates they’ve let go over the years, the draft-pick exodus under Ryan Pace would have hurt a little less.
Now onto Matt Eberflus.
He has two daughters, so hopefully he won’t have to deal with “Fire Eberflus” chants at their football games a couple years from now. (Plus, just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nagy being a simple, two-syllable last name was his downfall. FI-URR NAA-GGEE just rolls off the tongue. FI-URR EBB—ERRR-FLOOOSS? Doesn’t work.)
This video, from the mid-season “Hard Knocks” was my first look-in at Eberflus the man, and not just a guy I’d read about on the internet.
Can’t garner much from that, but you think it’s going to stop me? Guy is a born winner, tactician, and leader of men — very clearly.
Plus, he played for Nick Saban at the University of Toledo. So from this point forward, until he pisses us off and we want to fire him, we will be referring to him as a coach “from the Saban tree.” That doesn’t come with a stench anymore, either. Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart are national champions.
Here’s what I said two weeks ago on Eberflus when first posting my tiers of coaching candidates, for full transparency:
Eberflus is probably a smart guy, and he’s been a good coordinator for the Colts the past four years. But there’s just too much unknown here. He could be the guy, but I’m not going to be the one that says he is.
He had been in my “not excited about it” tier, and then was bumped up. A week later, I amended slightly:
I’d like to upgrade Eberflus (Colts D-Coordinator) — who is already set up for a second interview Monday — to “Maybe, but I have some questions.” After thinking about it, “not excited about it” was too harsh, as my reasoning was only that I didn’t know all that much about him. After reading more, at the very least, he seems like a strong head coaching candidate*.
My prediction was that the Bears, as they always do, were going to flip flop back to the defensive side of the ball. My second prediction was that it was going to be an older, staler “known.” Without Poles, it may have been.
Of the initial candidates, Brian Daboll, Nathaniel Hackett, Byron Leftwich, and Eberflus were the only ones without head coaching experience. Interestingly enough, it seems like all four of them are going to be hired, with Daboll the last in question (pending the Leftwich hire goes through with Jacksonville).
Would I have been more excited about the Daboll hire? Probably. Was I initially very “meh” about the Eberflus hire? For sure.
But I do think, after doing whatever research I could, that the Bears at the very least got a guy who is more than capable of being a good head coach in the NFL. That doesn’t mean he’ll be one.
Again, the NFL wrote anonymous love letters to Eberflus after he was hired. Around the league, people may love this guy even more than they love Poles. Plus, his players in Indianapolis seemed to have felt the same.
According to football reference, here is how the Colts defense ranked in the four years Eberflus was there: 10th, 18th, 10th, 9th. Only in one year, that second year of his, was the defense not in the top 10.
The last two years, the Colts were the only NFL team to be ranked in the top-10 in scoring, run defense, and takeaways.
Frank Reich, the Colts current head coach, gave Eberflus a glowing endorsement: “It was only a matter of time before he became a head coach,” Reich said.
There is this idea that Eberflus is a bad hire just because he’s on the defensive side of the ball. While a guy like Daboll would have been, no doubt, a very sensible pick given what he did with Josh Allen, and who we have at QB, a good defensive mind can — and should be — a young quarterback’s best friend.
Theoretically, a defensive coach should know everything someone like Justin Fields needs to know about NFL defenses. And the best NFL coaches routinely work day in, day out with their QBs, no matter their speciality.
Take Bill Belichick and John Harbaugh, for example. Each has a defensive background, yet each communicates regularly with their quarterback during the games, and also with them throughout the week.
In fact, for a young QB, I really like the idea of a good offensive coordinator — which we’ll get to — paired with a defensive-minded CEO.
We shouldn’t trust the hire just because it was Poles’ hire. After all, we still don’t know much about either, no matter the research we put in. Soon enough, we’ll know a lot more about both of them and their philosophies.
But, this being Poles’ choice is better than it being McCaskey’s, or anyone else’s on that hiring committee.
Additionally, though the moments were fleeting, there’s a silver lining to not hiring Sean Payton, who appears to be headed to TV.
I don’t have to get a tattoo of George McCaskey’s mustache on my ass.
I don’t know who the guy is that runs that account, but he really says some weird shit sometimes. Appreciate him supporting the newsletter, though.
Now, as for an offensive coordinator. It’s no doubt a crucial hire. Justin Fields, if not to be spoiled by the Bears’ stench, needs the right mentor to turn him into the quarterback we all believe he can be.
I expect Eberflus and Poles to move quickly on this one. One rumored name thus far has been the Eagles passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo.
Outside of that, Albert Breer said on Colin Cowherd’s show that Eberflus reportedly wants someone from the “Shanahan coaching tree” in that spot. It sounds nice, we’ll see if it comes to fruition.
There was additionally a rumor that Rich Bisaccia, the Raiders interim head coach and former special teams coordinator, is being targeted for the special teams job. Chris Tabor, the Bears former special teams leader, is leaving for the Panthers.
A lot of people believed that Bisaccia did enough to get the Raiders head job, so nabbing him as an assistant would be a great get.
It’s all about building out the staff, as we learned from Vic Fangio’s incredible influence on that 2018 team.
The first step and second step have been taken, now we await the third one.
This week has been a good one, Chicago Bears fans.
The Green Bay Packers lost and the schadenfreude was strong, that is until the bad vaccine jokes piled on top of us.
Days later, the honeymoon stage began with our new head coach and GM. These are the fun times.
Of course, a “good week” as a Bears fan is usually when the team is not on the football field. That’s our reality. But I’m happy, for this week, to take that for now.
And even though the Bills/Chiefs game looked as foreign to a Bears fan as the Georgia/Alabama title game looked to an Iowa fan, we can only hope that one day this same picture will be taken of Poles, this time donning a Bears pin.
Just days after the 36th anniversary of the last Bears title, it only feels right to dream about when our generation’s glory may come. Here’s to hoping this is a start… and that
This is our time.
Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. — Nathaniel Hawthorne
It’s a nice sentiment, one you can understand as a Bears fan. But I think this Saturday, I’ll opt to sit down with my buddies and, LOUDLY, discuss the future of our Chicago Bears over some beers.
Let’s wrap this up with some Bulls talk, shall we?
Minutes after Alex Caruso was grabbed in the air and thrown to the ground by that maggot Grayson Allen, my dad texted me.
“Gotta make those free throws.”
A day later, it was announced that he had broken his wrist, after finally returning from other injuries. He’ll be sidelined, like so many other Bulls, for six to eight weeks.
I’m not sure my dad changed his sentiment after the injury confirmation. Broken wrist or not, you just gotta make those free throws.
I was confronted with the news just after throwing on a coat to head outside — against my will — to face a Chicago January I promised you all would not bring any of us down this year.
I immediately called my dad to talk through the news, the wintry wind making it nearly impossible to hear him on the other end of the phone. Just then, I was splattered with bird shit. And not just bird shit, I may add, but pigeon shit. The worst creature in the universe wanted to make it clear it was above me that day.
In this moment, as football waned and negative temperature-days starting stacking up on each other, it seemed as if Chicago, or life, or whoever, was saying to me: you sure we can’t bring you down?
I’m not sure, but I’m still fighting. And so are the Bulls. After an ugly loss to the Orlando Magic post-Caruso news, the Bulls fought back short-handed and beat the Thunder and Raptors.
They nearly lost big leads in each of those contests, but given the circumstances at this point of the season, a win is a win is a win.
Plus, Zach LaVine returned. Nikola Vucevic turned in a couple great performances — rebounding, passing, and shooting — after some truly awful play over the past couple of weeks.
DeMar DeRozan was rewarded for his terrific start with a nod to be a starter in the All-Star game. LaVine should have joined him, but the moron fans voted in that flop Trae Young instead.
Still, LaVine will be in the All-Star game (and was voted as a starter by the players), and was happy to deliver the news to his teammate:
It will be the first time the Bulls had two All-Stars since 2015-2016, when Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol both got the nod.
Losing Caruso will be tough. Having him and Ball out affects this team in dreadful ways. They are not the same defensively without them. If Caruso had been out for the season, it would have all but squashed this team’s chances at a championship run.
Derrick Jones Jr., of course, injured his finger while rehabbing his knee. He will also be out another six to eight weeks. Frankly, this shit is unbelievable.
But the lord gives and takes. News has emerged that Patrick Williams should be available by the end of the regular season. Getting him in the fold will seriously bolster our defensive versatility heading into the playoffs.
While they’re out, let’s enjoy the emergence of the best Bulls rookie since Derrick Rose.
For now, we’re just a half game back of the no. 1 seed. And tonight, my friends, is a BULLS FRIDAY! LETS GO BULLS! STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGO!
I would love someone in the Shanahan tree but doubt that the OC for San Fran would make the lateral move to Chicago to be OC, right? I really have nothing to say about the Bears hires because I don't know shit at the end of the day. I was excited about Pace and Nagy. Enough Said!
I don't think Ayo is getting enough national press. not only is he a defensive star but his offense seems to be getting better constantly and he is passing the ball really well. He is still getting called for too many knick-knack fouls. Also love having Javonte Green back. How did he go undrafted and have to work his way through Europe to get here?
I really think the Bears are heading in the right direction. I believe the icing on the cake would be if we bring in Mike McDaniel to be the OC. I think the combination of Eberflus teaching Fields his knowledge of defensive schemes and McDaniel would be fantastic for Fields. Even if McDaniel only is the OC for 1-2 years, I feel Fields will make tremendous strides over the next 1-2 years.