Chicago Bears Rumors: Matt Eberflus and Ryan Poles on the hot seat?

All eyes remain on Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren.

Warren’s primary project in his first season as the Bears’ president has seemingly been on finalizing the team’s new stadium deal in Arlington Heights. While the deal has not been finalized, Warren hasn’t ruled out other locations including remaining in the City of Chicago.

While the stadium project is undoubtedly an important item on the to-do list for the Bears’ president, there remains an expectation that Warren will have an impact on the team’s football operations at some point.

After all, unlike the man he replaced, Ted Phillips, Warren does have a background in football.

While Bears fans have been calling on Warren to issue a state of the team address that differs from what general manager Ryan Poles has already said about the team’s disappointing start to the season, that is not something that team presidents often do.

Especially a team president in Warren this is in his first year with the Bears. It would seem that if Warren does make changes to the team’s football structure, he will announce it after the season.

To that end, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated touched on Warren’s impact with the Bears and had this to say. (H/t to our friends at Bleacher Nation for the transcript).

"“I think right now it’s trending toward Eberflus not being back. I think that, in part, is due to Kevin Warren’s influence in the organization. Remember, Kevin Warren came in after being the Commissioner of the Big Ten. He did not hire Ryan Poles. He did not hire Matt Eberflus. I think he is motivated to see what he can do with his own guys in there. I’ve also heard Kevin Warren wants to be a little more involved on the football side, so that could influence the decision making there.”–Albert Breer via Sports Illustrated"

Breer’s reporting makes it seem that Warren has taken notice of what has gone wrong on and off the field for the Bears this season and he is preparing to make changes. Firing Matt Eberflus shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise but moving on from general manager Ryan Poles after only two seasons would be an unprecedented move for the Bears’ organization.

Moving on from Poles would signal that these past two years have been a complete failure and, in fairness to the Bears’ general manager, last season was intentionally bad. Poles likely deserves to have a third year and if put in a position to save his job, he likely would point to the Bears’ likely having two first-round draft picks in the 2024 NFL Draft and the chance for him to finally handpick his starting quarterback. However, if Warren truly intends to impose his will on the Bears’ football operations, then the regression this season would be all he needs to point to the reason for the change.