Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus’ first Bears presser went well
The Chicago Bears had their first-ever presser led by Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus as the general manager and head coach of the organization. It went very well and everyone should be very excited about how these two plan to move this franchise forward.
Of course, it started with George McCaskey introducing himself and bringing in Poles. When Poles first came up, he was incredibly emotional when talking about his family, people he had previous working relationships with within the Kansas City Chiefs organization, and everyone that helped him get there.
Not long after Poles did some talking about his life, career, and philosophy, he brought in Eberflus who did more of the same. After that was done, they took questions from the press about a variety of different topics.
Over the course of the hour-long presser, they discussed things like the quarterback situation, defensive and offensive schemes, and how they planned on building the team through the draft. It was all very positive which is exactly what we needed to hear.
The Chicago Bears seem to be in good hands after hearing Eberflus and Poles speak.
One of the most notable quotes of the presser came from Eberflus when he announced that he would not be calling defensive plays. He made it clear that he is the head coach who will oversee everything and isn’t interested in being one-dimensional.
That is notable because of the previous head coach. Matt Nagy was so into the offense and tried to control it until the very end. He seemed to be more concerned with that than being the head coach of the whole team as a whole so this was very refreshing.
Poles gave a quote that will have everyone ready to run through a wall:
"“We’re going to take the North an never give it back”"
That is a very real goal. As bad as the Bears have been for the last 40 years or so, this regime seems a bit different than the rest of them. There are also situations around the division that make it seem like a realistic possibility for Chicago to prevail in relatively short order.
From the way that they both spoke, it doesn’t seem like they want to talk about players on the roster. They didn’t even talk about Justin Fields at length which was very interesting. They danced around multiple different questions trying to get opinions on certain players.
They clearly want to evaluate things on a deeper level and not let anybody know who they like and who they don’t like. You can guess on a few different players but they didn’t budge on anyone that might be a question mark.
Overall, this was a very good press conference. This team has dealt with a lot of bad leadership over the years. So far, it appears that they put their best foot forward and will move in the right direction. Of course, there is a lot to unpack here as we move through the offseason.