LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) — The Bears were deliberate in how they set up their press conference Tuesday following one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
The team set up a large lectern standing atop a riser and allowed fourth-year general manager Ryan Poles to stand alone in front of the microphones. The scene was meant to be a symbol of his authority in leading football operations at Halas Hall and to highlight management's belief in him.
But as Poles addressed the media inside the PNC Center at Halas Hall, seated to his right were team president/CEO Kevin Warren, chairman George McCaskey and his brother Pat McCaskey, the secretary of the board of directors. Many other members of the Bears organization looked on as Poles expressed his belief in the team’s future after a 5-12 season.
Poles will be the “point man” in the Bears’ search to find their next head coach, as Warren restated Tuesday, but he won't lead the process alone. The search panel will include at least five others and probably many more.
Warren and McCaskey will be part of the coaching search, as is customary for any team president and chairman. Senior director of player personnel Jeff King and director of football administration Matt Feinstein – trusted lieutenants of Poles – will also be involved, as will chief human resources officer Liz Geist. The Bears have given assistant general manager Ian Cunningham the green light to focus on interviewing for general manager openings across the NFL as the opportunity arises. He'll join the team’s coaching search if he isn't hired elsewhere.
Beyond them, Poles also said the Bears’ senior leadership team – which includes 11 individuals with executive vice president or senior vice president titles – will be included in meetings with candidates as the search narrows down to finalists. Warren singled out Karen Murphy, the team's EVP of stadium development and chief operating officer in particular.
"I think what it shows is we just want to have a collaborative organization to provide our individuals, our employees here," Warren said.
"It's not only us interviewing the candidates but it's the candidates interviewing us."
For a franchise that so often speaks of learning from its past missteps, this all sounds so frighteningly familiar.
After the Bears fired Lovie Smith and set out on a coaching search in early 2013, they forced reigning AP Coach of the Year Bruce Arians to conduct a mock press conference at Halas Hall. Team employees mimicked actual reporters by asking faux questions as the Bears believed that was a necessary box for Arians to check.
The Bears instead hired Marc Trestman, whose two-year tenure proved to be a debacle. So in 2015, McCaskey and then-president Ted Phillips sought the guidance of retired NFL executive Ernie Accorsi, who was then 73, to help find Trestman’s replacement.
Accorsi guided the Bears to John Fox, whom he worked with in leading the Giants during the 1990s. Fox went 14-34 in his Bears tenure and was fired after three seasons.
In January 2022 after the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy, the Bears asked retired NFL executive Bill Polian to join McCaskey, Phillips, senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade and vice president of player engagement Lamar "Soup" Campbell in leading that search. Campbell was fired just months later.
A common theme amid the Bears’ struggle to find lasting success – and continuity in their football operations department – has been instability in leadership. Those previous searches were conducted without a semblance of a clear plan. Of course, the common denominator is McCaskey, whose 14-season tenure as chairman has featured four general managers, soon-to-be six head coaches and zero playoff wins.
"Ultimately, I’m responsible for the failures of the Bears,” McCaskey said. “The legacy of George Halas is excellence on the field and making a difference off the field. I think the Bears have done a great job off the field making an impact in the community. The fact of the matter is we haven’t done it on the field, and ultimately that’s on me.”
McCaskey claimed he has learned from his past mistakes in leading the Bears, but that sure doesn’t seem to be the case as they prepare to hire yet another head coach.
The Bears’ lack of stability will linger over this coaching search, with one prominent league source questioning whether top coaching candidates will be willing to work within the current hierarchy. Given that the search process already involves perhaps more than a dozen individuals, those concerns may only grow.
Will the Bears lose out on Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson because he grows worried about the team’s organizational structure? Will former AP Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel be asked to conduct a mock press conference like Arians?
The Bears began their search process on Nov. 29, when Matt Eberflus became the first head coach in franchise history to be fired during the middle of a season. In making that move then, the Bears had the opportunity to focus on the top candidates and get a head start on the process.
When the search began in earnest Monday, the Bears submitted formal requests to interview more than a dozen coaching candidates – and that number is still growing.
Will the Bears have more interviewers or interviewees in the search process? Either way, there are significant concerns emerging before the first interview has even taken place.
If the Bears hope to finally find that elusive sustained success, they should truly empower Poles to lead this search on his own and offer their blessing to whomever he covets as head coach.
As it stands now, the Bears don't deserve the benefit of the doubt given their long, unfortunate history of missteps and losing.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on X @CEmma670.