Ryan Poles' Plan To Hire Matt Eberflus Apparently Goes Back Years

When Ryan Poles was set to become the next GM of the Chicago Bears, he had one demand of ownership. He wanted the final say on who the head coach would be. Nobody else. He felt that assurance was necessary. George McCaskey, trusting Poles' vision for the franchise, granted the request. The new GM then sat down with each of the finalists. Former head coach Jim Caldwell, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, and Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. Most insiders seemed convinced that Caldwell or Quinn were the favorites. Caldwell because of his strong ties to Bill Polian, who led the Bears GM search. Quinn because Poles was said to be an admirer of his work. Others believed Poles would likely open up the search even further with new candidates now that he had complete control. Nobody expected what came next.

The Bears hired Eberflus.

People were shocked. Here was Poles, a guy from Kansas City where pairing an offensive head coach with a talented young QB had won them a Super Bowl, opting to put the fate of his franchise in the hands of a defensive specialist. As it turns out, this was not a spur-of-the-moment thing. Poles had been contemplating a chance to work with Eberflus for a long time. Albert Breer of the MMQB revealed how far back the origins of this pairing goes.

New GM Ryan Poles and Eberflus, who share an agent, were introduced a couple of years back through mutual friends—the kind of matchmaking that commonly happens with rising young execs and coaches—and it didn’t take long for the two to realize something was there. The first conversation lasted over an hour. They talked about style of play and preferences in personnel, and they resolved to keep in touch afterward. “I was just like, ‘Man, that was really good.’ And he said the same thing after talking to him later,” Eberflus said. “And we just kept our conversations going and the relationship going, and sure enough, this year during this cycle, he was up for a bunch of jobs, I was up for a couple jobs and it just worked out.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urOTDYkLm7w&t=36s&ab_channel=ChicagoBears

Things make so much more sense now.

When Ryan Poles made it clear he wanted the final say on the head coach decision, it wasn't to steer the course of the search. The truth is he already knew who he wanted and needed to ensure he had the power to pick his guy. When that was granted, Eberflus was all but a lock. Poles just wanted to see if Caldwell or Quinn could change his mind. They didn't. Thus Eberflus got the job. Say this for the new Bears GM. The fact that he was basically scouting potential coaches he could mesh with years ago illustrates how confident he was that he'd be running his own team sooner or later.