GREEN BAY, Wis. — Heading into this season, when Bears general manager Ryan Poles’ popularity was at its peak and coach Matt Eberflus still was being eyed warily, Poles disagreed with separating the personnel department from the coaching staff, saying the credit should be shared equally.
It’s all his now.
The Bears’ disastrous season, their most thudding disappointment in six years, ended Sunday with a trivial 24-22 win over the Packers at Lambeau Field. There is no parade for snapping a 10-game losing streak overall — “Crazy number,” rookie quarterback Caleb Williams said — and an 11-game skid against the Packers.
The details from Sunday are moot, though it was telling that the Bears needed one touchdown off a trick play on special teams and another set up by a takeaway just outside the red zone, plus a last-second 51-yard field goal by Cairo Santos to take down the Packers, who played backup quarterback Malik Willis most of the game.
There is no one left to blame but Poles. He spent the past calendar year getting rid of Eberflus, Justin Fields, Luke Getsy and Shane Waldron. The cleanup from the Ryan Pace era has long been over. It’s just Poles now.
He has sole ownership of this 5-12 season and the Bears’ 15-36 record during his tenure. That’s second-worst in the NFL in that span, and it includes going 3-15 in the NFC North and 4-24 against teams that finished with winning records.
As Williams put it Sunday, the Bears need to “make a monumental jump for next year.” Beating the Packers as they ramp up for the playoffs while the Bears venture into yet another coaching search doesn’t make any of this more palatable.
Poles’ errors trace back to his third day on the job, when he chose Eberflus instead of candidates like Dan Quinn, Kevin O’Connell and Mike McDaniel, and the subsequent slapdash of hiring of Getsy as offensive coordinator.
He then stuck with Eberflus at the end of the 2023 season despite him having done more bad than good, and the two embarked on a boondoggle search for a new offensive coordinator that ended with Waldron — the ninth-best candidate of the nine they interviewed, including Kliff Kingsbury.
Poles then entrusted Williams to that group and sent him out behind an offensive line he severely misjudged as good enough. When 80% of something needs to be replaced, it’s flagrantly substandard.
The defensive line needs new starters, too, other than pass rusher Montez Sweat.
And at the center of the Bears’ problems is whether the core truly is talented enough. Poles plans to build around Williams, wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, tight end Cole Kmet, Sweat and cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon. Is that group on par with what the contenders bring to the table?
The Bears are miles from Poles’ goal to “take the North and never give it back” as they’ll watch the Lions, Vikings and Packers in the playoffs. The gap is inexcusably wide going into Poles’ fourth season, and it’s going to take more than one offseason of a new coaching staff, draft picks and free agents to shrink it.
This likely is Poles’ last chance to deliver a winner. Bears president Kevin Warren made a strong statement in his favor last month, and all indications are that he’ll stand by it and have him run the coaching search.
Poles is scheduled to speak to the media this week and needs to take legitimate accountability by giving real answers. Chief among the questions will be how he got it so wrong on the offensive line, Eberflus and Waldron.
Warren’s affirmation also was a fairly transparent ultimatum. Once something like that needs to be said, it’ll be said only once. If the Bears are playing for hollow late-season victories again next season like they were Sunday, there won’t be anything left to say but goodbye.