After a full day of upheaval at Halas Hall, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles emerged Thursday morning to reset the tone, acknowledging the struggles of an 0-2 start and insisting there is no panic in the building.
“First and foremost, to hit it straight on, we have adversity right now,” he said. “Slow start, 0-2, not where you want to be. We’ve dealt with life issues. We’ve dealt with injuries and that’s all real and that’s a part of what we do and what we gotta deal with. The beautiful thing about our philosophy here, our organization is we’re solution oriented.”
It was a somewhat rare move by the organization, which in the past has largely made general managers off-limits during the regular season. Poles, two games into his second year, seems savvy enough to navigate his way through distractions and project his message, which is important, especially a day after there was one calamity after another.
A timeline of Wednesday’s events:
Quarterback Justin Fields was critical of the coaching he’s been receiving, saying it was in part a reason for what he described as “robotic” play.
Coach Matt Eberflus announced left tackle Braxton Jones, who hasn’t missed a snap this season, is on injured reserve with a neck injury.
Eberflus declined to say anything about Alan Williams or acknowledge if he was still the team’s defensive coordinator.
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Fields held a second and exceedingly rare media session (more unusual than the GM speaking on the record in-season) and clarified he wasn’t throwing coaches under the bus.
Backup Nathan Peterman was released leaving undrafted rookie free agent Tyson Bagent as the No. 2 quarterback. The team re-signed Peterman on Thursday morning.
Oof.
“No one is flinching at any situations, not our owner, not our president, our head coach, not myself, none of our players,” Poles said. “Everyone is focusing on solving the issues that we have so that we can be a better team.
“Flus and I were talking about it last night. We’ve both been through slow starts, rough starts and got things back on track in our background. Him in Indy, I think it was 2018, myself in Kansas City in 2015. So sometimes you have these and you’ve got to fight through it and figure out how you can be a better football team.”
The beleaguered offense remains closely scrutinized, and the frustration for everyone in the organization is the work put in since the spring to help Fields take the next step hasn’t materialized through two games. Poles was emphatic that Fields’ comments are not an issue.
“I can’t be more clear than this: No one in our entire building, none of our coaches see Justin as a finger pointer at all,” Poles said. “That kid is always taking ownership of anything that has happened on the field. He takes it head on. He works, he grinds, he puts his head down, he works with his teammates, he works with his coaches to find solutions.
“In my opinion, you got a young quarterback trying to figure it out. You have a guy who hasn’t had the cleanest start to his career who last year, with the roster, had to put the team on his back, do some unbelievable things athletically. Now he gets talent around him and has to figure out and balance when to do those cool things athletically, when to lean on others and that is sometimes a gray place to live in. That takes time. That takes time on task for him to take that next step.”
Poles said he has faith in Eberflus as a defensive play caller and indicated the team would look at changing titles or do something to account the vacant defensive coordinator position. For all of the scrutiny of the offense, the defense has been equally disappointing in pretty much every regard but playing against the run, which has been solid.
Poles was also incredibly tight-lipped about Williams, which follows the pattern the team has been taking. The Bears released a 12-word statement about Williams’ resignation Wednesday and almost immediately scrubbed him from the website. It’s an interesting look with Williams asserting he left the team to attend to health and family matters.
“Worked with (President/CEO) Kevin (Warren) and (Chairman) George (McCaskey), all of our leadership, to make sure we were handling it the right way, communicating properly and obviously everything concluded,” Poles said. “We have a ton of confidence in our plan moving forward.”
The Bears believed they would be better this season. They were curious, though, because nearly 50% of the roster turned over from the 3-14 team of 2022. There are young players on both sides of the ball. It hasn’t come to fruition yet and Sunday’s game at Kansas City will be a daunting task.
“I said it from the beginning, I feel good about this roster on paper,” Poles said. “It’s got to jell. It’s got to work together. It doesn’t happen overnight. Would you like it to? Absolutely.
“I wish the preseason was cleaner where everyone was going a ton of reps. It didn’t happen that way. We had to adjust. I believe that we have a better team. We’re doing things the right way and unfortunately sometimes the right way is the hardest way.”
Poles isn’t recoiling after Wednesday and didn’t duck when there was an opportunity to step in and survey the mess, which projects he’s in control of the situation.
It won’t make a difference come kickoff at Arrowhead Stadium, but if it calms things inside the building and resonates in the locker room, it will help.