LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) -- Introduced Monday inside the Halas Hall auditorium, new Bears head coach Matt Eberflus acknowledged the awkward silence that followed.
“What, no applause?” Eberflus joked.
Welcome to Chicago, Flus, where the ovations are earned and really should never, ever come from the media corps anyway.
For the sake of argument, if the reporters in the audience were asked to respond after the 60-minute, get-to-know-you debuts of Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles, most likely would've offered a polite golf clap out of respect.
Or, put another way, the Bears ticket office sure didn’t have to worry about getting flooded with calls Monday afternoon after a performance more yawn-inducing than awe-inspiring.
Nobody won the press conference. Nobody really lost it either. Using that analogy, it felt more like a scrimmage, with better effort than execution and more emotion than eloquence.
It was neither cause for ecstasy nor alarm in Beardom, nothing worth overreacting to one way or another, not when you fairly consider Eberflus and Poles both were sitting in their big chairs for the first time. It was an unremarkable start to an era that needs to be, well, remarkable given how big this offseason could be for the Bears organization.
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When some coaches and executives speak, you want to sound like them, be like them and think like them. When Eberflus and Poles talked, occasionally you wanted to correct them. This is what you get when you hire people to do something for the first time, a Bears tradition.
Disbelievers got more ammunition. Diehards heard reasons to think the Bears can retool in time to talk playoffs next fall, if Aaron Rodgers leaves Green Bay. It was one of those days when many heard what they wanted to hear.
Let’s start with Eberflus, the 51-year-old football lifer who talks like he’s speaking at a coaching clinic. Eberflus sounded like every coach who ever gave a halftime speech, throwing around acronyms and analogies equally cringey and corny that could’ve been copied out of his high school playbook. Or maybe Eberflus just finished watching “Ted Lasso,” season 2.
My first thought was the Bears just hired a terrific life coach when they really needed to find somebody who could beat the Packers.
“We’re soulmates, but we’re also cellmates," Eberflus answered when asked a question about team chemistry.
Insert eye-roll emoji here.
But my mind remains open. When Eberflus spoke directly to his team, he channeled his inner Lovie Smith, sounding a lot like Lovie did in the same room accepting the same job 18 years ago – and that worked out pretty well.
“My next piece of advice for the players for sure is get your track shoes on, because we’re running," Eberflus said.
Most people probably shook their heads and snickered at all the coach-speak. Maybe a few sat up straighter in their chairs. Whatever the case, Eberflus made clear that’s who he plans to be with the Bears, like it or not, an “executive head coach," an authentic, rah-rah leader stressing effort and attitude as concerned with inspiring players as he is with improving them because he considers those goals intertwined.
In that way most, Eberflus actually stands the best chance of becoming relatable because he appears to understand his limitations. The Toledo native possesses a Midwesterner’s humility. You can’t underdeliver if you don’t overpromise, and nothing that came out of Eberflus’ mouth could be interpreted as bravado. He came across as the standard-order, cliché-ridden head football coach, more normal than his most recent predecessors, whose demeanor always seemed too extreme.
Marc Trestman was extremely odd, an eccentric. John Fox was extremely cantankerous, a cranky coach clearly making his last stop. Matt Nagy was extremely eager to please, too much so, creating affability that lasted longer than his collection of plays but often caused him to talk too much.
Eberflus? He already provided plenty of fodder for people to mock him but just seemed like a guy you’d meet at a bar one Friday night who simply loves football and believes in old-fashioned stuff like hard work and commitment.
We don’t know how that will go over with the millionaires in the locker room or how quickly Eberflus will discover what works as a defensive coordinator doesn’t always work as a head coach. But we can be fairly certain he plans to let his coaches coach while he focuses on the leadership aspect of his job and making his team “Chicago tough."
That means hotshot new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy figures to get full autonomy to devise an offense that maximizes Justin Fields’ potential and provides a schematic advantage unrelated to effort. That means the defensive coaches whom Eberflus poaches from the Colts will be left alone to convert the Bears’ 3-4 roster into a 4-3 turnover machine. That means Eberflus will focus on everything else, encouraging and challenging, inspiring and improving, doing what the Bears hired him to in leading from the front.
The greatest challenge for Eberflus remains demonstrating the relationship between effort and acumen on a team with a $208-million payroll. Admittedly, that’s a tough buy-in. If he can do that, Eberflus will bring the Bears closer to backing up Poles’ big promise.
“We’re going to take the (NFC) North and never give it back," Poles declared.
Poles said all the right things, fighting back emotion early and endearing himself to chairman George McCaskey by saying he still couldn’t believe McCaskey picked him up personally at O’Hare. (He’s not the only one.) The most memorable moment for Poles came when asked if he would’ve expanded the coaching search to more than three finalists if given the opportunity.
“I was given the opportunity," Poles interjected. “I found him.’’
It was his mic-drop moment.
Overall, Poles represented himself like the curious and observant person he described himself. The 36-year-old first black GM in Bears history never appeared overwhelmed or unprepared, creating a positive first impression.
The most uncomfortable moment came when I asked Poles and Eberflus if they indeed shared an agent, Trace Armstrong – the Bears’ de facto president of football operations? – and whether that business relationship had anything to do with their football pairing.
“I mean, I’m sure in terms of getting a hold of each other and in contact with each other, that plays a part," Poles answered after a brief hesitation.
Added Eberflus: “Yeah, it was an easier transition."
The rest went according to script.
Like the 31 other NFL general managers, Poles wants to be draft-driven. He revealed few other details except when both men were asked the essential question how they planned to score more touchdowns.
“It starts with the foundation of the offensive line and establishing that run game, which leads to explosive plays," Poles said after Eberflus answered.
Even in today’s modern NFL, the Bears could do worse than making the offensive line their top priority. Many other chronic problems exists but none bigger than that. By hiring Ian Cunningham to be the franchise’s first assistant general manager, Poles added another former offensive lineman who shares his football-world view from the trenches. That isn’t insignificant. The most important player in the organization remains Fields, who admirably showed up Monday, but the emphasis on the run game and pass protection only will enhance his development. A No. 1 wide receiver would help too, but everything starts with controlling the line of scrimmage.
Consider the Bears hired a former offensive lineman as GM and empowered him to hire a defensive-minded head coach, moves presumably intended to harden a team that had gone soft.
“Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus both possess the qualities we’re looking for in our team," McCaskey said. “Tough. Gritty. Smart. Opportunistic. Winners."
Winners?
You’ll understand holding our applause until there’s more proof.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.