(670 The Score) Exactly one year ago Tuesday, Bears chairman George McCaskey was in the mood to lecture. Fresh off a 6-11 season, the Bears were out a head coach and a general manager. Forget direction – the team didn’t even have anyone at the wheel. As media members from all sorts of Chicago outlets took a deep sigh and logged into Zoom, the four dozen hands-up emojis in the chat box revealed just how many questions there were about the team’s status quo. With the spotlight firmly focused on McCaskey (and president Ted Phillips for some reason?), this was his best chance in months to reassure Bears fans that the outlook wasn't quite as bad as it seemed.
“An NFL head coach understands and accepts that he’ll be subjected to a fair amount of criticism and that unfortunately, some of it will be personal,” McCaskey said five sentences into his opening remarks after firing coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace. “Coach’s children do not strike the same bargain. What Matt’s oldest son was made to endure at a high school playoff football game was shameful and inexcusable. All he wanted to do was play a game he loves with his friends. Coaches’ kids should be off limits … Ryan’s and Matt’s kids probably aren’t very happy with the Bears right now.”
If you’ve followed along with any of the Bears’ end-of-season press conferences over the last decade or so, McCaskey's well-meaning – some may call it misguided – attempt to open the conversation by chastising a high school cheering section two months after the fact probably didn’t come as much of a surprise. Executives at Halas Hall have made a real habit of stepping in it over the last three or four tenures, to the point that these January debriefs started to morph into something a bit more tense. At times, it felt like a sparring session between a grumpy, defiant front office and an even grumpier, impatient media. More than a few eyes rolled as the definition of "collaboration" was permanently drilled into all of our skulls for 20 minutes before a PR staffer loudly announced that they’d had enough.
However, if you didn’t have the opportunity to watch a live-streamed press conference at 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, I regret to inform you that this one was boring. Maybe bland is the better word? As tempting as it may be, try not to indulge the people who immediately jumped on Twitter to suggest that general manager Ryan Poles gave some secret, coded answer about quarterback Justin Fields’ future in Chicago – Poles spoke like a GM who realized he could get his point across by talking through the media, not down to them (zing!). Consider this dry answer about Fields’ development.
“Yeah, we had good conversations,” Poles said. “I'm excited for the direction he's going, and as I mentioned before, he knows where he has to improve. I think he mentioned that the other day. We're excited about his development and where he goes next.”
See? I warned you. Nothing about this answer is interesting. It’s impossible to feel angry or slighted at being told that the team likes the direction its promising young quarterback is headed. It’s a safe, flat response that doesn’t tip the Bears’ hand, which is to say that it’s the perfect position to take for a GM with as much bargaining power as Poles has. He probably does feel that way, but the question was, "Do you plan on Justin Fields being your QB next year?" It’s the unique type of answer that leaves us enough to talk about without actually saying anything. How does he feel about running back David Montgomery, a fan favorite whose consistent effort over the last four years maybe doesn’t feel quite as appreciated as it should be?
“I've always wanted to keep David,” Poles said. "I love his mentality, how he plays the game. I've told him that to his face, and he's part of the identity that we had this year that kept us competitive … the second part of that is just the contract situation. That's something that we'll see how that goes, and if we can find common ground — obviously I've learned that you can want a player and the value has got to come together for it to happen.”
Another snoozer that also happens to make a ton of sense. Maybe "leaving a press conference with your reputation still intact" is a low bar to clear, but Poles cleared it nonetheless. Giving media members all the specific personnel answers they’re looking for obviously isn't going to happen, but there’s some credit to be given for handling a season’s worth of questions without loudly proclaiming "that’s real" with a lingering stare. Being helpful and evasive at the same time is an artform and one that Poles seems far more naturally talented at. And yeah, the personal feelings of one Bears blogger aren’t important. But the way I see it, a boring press conference deserves a boring column. Things are looking up.
Cam Ellis is a writer for 670 The Score and Audacy Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KingsleyEllis.
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