Free Talk: Bears HC Matt Eberflus

[wulfy]

Well, without non-factual opinions to spout, not sure there is a lot to talk about here.

[dplank]

UOK, was DBB wrong when he said the final list was 3 then? Eberflus, Caldwell, and Quinn? How would Eberflus be on that list if the only people in the room at that stage wanted either Caldwell or Quinn? Something doesn't line up. Was he wrong there or is he wrong here, both can't be correct.

Because Poles wanted him?

He probably did, but it doesn’t matter. This is basic logic here, George had a heavy hand in hiring Eberflus even if Poles wanted him anyways. Because George certainly discussed HCs with Poles as part of his interview process, everyone knew who the “finalists” were from George’s search, and within a day of being hired as GM he selected one of those finalists. Whether or not he was Poles true preferred candidate (he probably was) is irrelevant when considering whether or not George had influence in the HC hire.

This is not at all difficult to see. George chooses GM in part based on his comfort with the finalists he’s already vetted (unless you think they didn’t discuss it??) GM hires one of those finalists immediately, within a day of being hired himself. The GM selection by George dictated the HC hire (at least ensuring one of the three finalists).

[dplank]

The fact that George created a short list to choose from doesn’t mean Eberflus is a bad hire or that I’m opposed to it either. But recognize what happened, same as what happened to Pace with Fox. If this doesn’t work out, we will hear the excuses about how this wasn’t really “his guy” and all that jazz.

[Xee]

Just thought this was interesting:

[Moriarty]

The fact that George created a short list to choose from doesn’t mean Eberflus is a bad hire or that I’m opposed to it either. But recognize what happened

Agreed

[Yogi da Bear]

Was that a Pickles sighting? And English Pickles? Is that made from English Cucumbers? lol

Big difference between here and what happened with Pace. As I remember, Pace was hired and going through his coach search when Fox was fired. Fox was then immediately foisted on Pace. Here, I think that Eberflus was Poles' guy all along.

[Hema2.0]

Well, without non-factual opinions to spout, not sure there is a lot to talk about here.

Everybody deserves and has an opinion. But acting like you know (not you personally) this person or that person was the better hire is nonsense.

Nobody here has any clout anyways. I'm just hoping for the best. If and when Eberflus shows me he is garbage as HC, I will be right there with everybody else bitching and complaining. Until then, he is winning multiple superbowls for this franchise.

[Mikefive]

I'm taking the same attitude about this as I do the draft. No matter what information I have from the media about Matt Eberflus, it's not enough to know what's going to happen. Thus, I'm not going to have an opinion. I might think he's a star and you might think he's a dope. But none of that matters. The only thing that does is what happens on gamedays. So I'm in wait and see mode.

"You are what your record says you are."

[wab]

We will be loaded at DE - Mack, Quinn, Edwards Jr, and Trevis Gibson. DT is a worry, Blackson should be good but we don't really have that 3T. Goldman, Hicks, and Nichols may all be gone and Tonga probably backs up Blackson. Could a switch like this extend the life of Hicks? I'd think Attachoa would be gone also not that it's a big deal.

I don't know how to map our LB's into this scheme. But I could definitely see Roquan playing the Urlacher role - or the Briggs role - at an elite level.

If that's the system switch, 3T is pretty empty.
I could see Edwards maybe being asked to add 15 and be the backup there.
But giving Nichols big money to play a position he never has and is an iffy fit for doesn't make sense. So no real starter there at all.

LB is also awful, aside from Roquan. We're taking a position group that previously had 2 starters/4 total and didn't have enough talent for that and now extending it to 3 starters/6 total.

I've penciled it in this way, fwiw. But a lot of these guys may be/should be replaced:
LB[6]: Jones(30/FA), Ogletree(29/FA), Smith(24/1)
Johnson(23/2r), Trevathan(31/1), Iyiegbuniwe(25/FA)

Keep in mind that one of the rotational 3Techs in Indy is 277lbs. Edwards should be ok. I think this does mean a greater push to keep Nichols now.

I'm also thinking they kick Smith outside and he plays the Darius Leonard role. Iggy = Bobby Okereke. They need a middle...so bringing back Ogletree might work for a year.

[The Cooler King]

The fact that George created a short list to choose from doesn’t mean Eberflus is a bad hire or that I’m opposed to it either. But recognize what happened, same as what happened to Pace with Fox. If this doesn’t work out, we will hear the excuses about how this wasn’t really “his guy” and all that jazz.

I think it's a mistake to think the possibilities for Poles were limited to the finalists either. Going with a dual approach always meant there was a likliehood of "natural" alignment. Part of the reason I think the idea that George could just hire a GM and step away. If that relationship is the most important (or second most after QB-coach) then you had to align the vision.

By all accounts running this on a dual process allowed them to find GM and coaches whose values aligned so that a GM was ready to go from day 1. Doesn't mean they worked backwards from coach. It means there was a common influence and vision (prob a combo of Polian and Armstrong helping bring whatever basic vision to life). That's okay. Too often fans just go with a random pairing (or to the other extreme just pair two guys from the same org) when they mock these decisions out, but they are highly tethered.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Just caught George's presser:

"I'm particularly grateful for Ted's steady hand when the team faced adversity during this past season and as he and I went through the end-of-season evaluation process. We had vigorous discussions over the course of several weeks. Those conversations, as well as meetings with Ryan and Matt, including this week, have been candid and constructive and have culminated in the decisions we're sharing with you today. Ryan and Matt are men of character. They are both like Ted: outstanding leaders..."

Or maybe that was this time last year...

[dplank]

The fact that George created a short list to choose from doesn’t mean Eberflus is a bad hire or that I’m opposed to it either. But recognize what happened, same as what happened to Pace with Fox. If this doesn’t work out, we will hear the excuses about how this wasn’t really “his guy” and all that jazz.

I think it's a mistake to think the possibilities for Poles were limited to the finalists either. Going with a dual approach always meant there was a likliehood of "natural" alignment. Part of the reason I think the idea that George could just hire a GM and step away. If that relationship is the most important (or second most after QB-coach) then you had to align the vision.

By all accounts running this on a dual process allowed them to find GM and coaches whose values aligned so that a GM was ready to go from day 1. Doesn't mean they worked backwards from coach. It means there was a common influence and vision (prob a combo of Polian and Armstrong helping bring whatever basic vision to life). That's okay. Too often fans just go with a random pairing (or to the other extreme just pair two guys from the same org) when they mock these decisions out, but they are highly tethered.

Let me ask the question this way: Does George hire Poles if Poles tells him he’s against all 3 of his finalists while interviewing for the GM job? I say no friggin way. And so by George making that part of his GM criteria, he indirectly makes the HC hire. Ensuring alignment means that George directly had a hand in the HC hire.

[The Marshall Plan]

I don’t believe for a minute that the decision was 100% Poles’.

Just use common sense. Yes it’s entirely possible that Poles was asked during the interview process as to what his opinion is of the following 3 or 6 HC candidates.

But what if Poles put his foot down and said hey what about Bieniemy?

Aside from all this, how damning is it of Bieniemy that no serious calls again this year especially from the Bears who just hired somebody from the Chiefs?

[Otis Day]

But at the same time, does Poles take the job if that is the case? He had other teams interested?

We will never know (reference UOK's sig).

[The Cooler King]

I think it's a mistake to think the possibilities for Poles were limited to the finalists either. Going with a dual approach always meant there was a likliehood of "natural" alignment. Part of the reason I think the idea that George could just hire a GM and step away. If that relationship is the most important (or second most after QB-coach) then you had to align the vision.

By all accounts running this on a dual process allowed them to find GM and coaches whose values aligned so that a GM was ready to go from day 1. Doesn't mean they worked backwards from coach. It means there was a common influence and vision (prob a combo of Polian and Armstrong helping bring whatever basic vision to life). That's okay. Too often fans just go with a random pairing (or to the other extreme just pair two guys from the same org) when they mock these decisions out, but they are highly tethered.

Let me ask the question this way: Does George hire Poles if Poles tells him he’s against all 3 of his finalists while interviewing for the GM job? I say no friggin way. And so by George making that part of his GM criteria, he indirectly makes the HC hire. Ensuring alignment means that George directly had a hand in the HC hire.

I think it means that he wouldn't have liked Poles on principal regardless of a coach shortlist. If you have a grounded vision, alignment can be an outcome.

Do I think Ted or Geroge are particularly vision oriented? No, but that's part of the benefit of hiring Polian and whatever other names they worked at to evaluate what they're doing. Consultants are often quite good at bringing a disorgnized vision into a purposeful one.

[UOK]

I don’t believe for a minute that the decision was 100% Poles’.

[realred2]

With all the head coaching interviews the Bears did over the last 2 weeks, where most of them were done via Zoom (or other remote media), do we not assume that they were all recorded and the new GM could have sat and watched a bunch of them to get together some ideas on a head coach? Maybe he spent yesterday watching all the curated interviews (a in house Video guy could cut them all down to questions and answers after each interview was initially done) and then Poles followed up on a few that he liked, along with the ones he had in mind before taking the job.

I look forward to seeing who the head coach picks as coordinators, that will really tell us about where we are heading next year. I also would like to see the Head coach be a head coach, not a coordinator with a head coach title. Hopefully Eberflus oversees everything and the coordinators run their sides of the ball well.

[o-pus #40 in B major]

I think the decision was influenced by Bill Polian, which might not be such a bad thing, after all.

I also think Polian would like to be successful where Earnie Accorsi fucked up.

That would be a nice finale act for a guy like Polian - help George and Ted revive the Bears.

Leave a legacy - like a Godfather.

[Hiphopopotamos]

I can't help but laugh at the hypotheticals people create for these hirings. Poles is the GM - he made the choice - but he's also smart enough to know that he needs everyone's buy-in on this type of hire. He's not going to hire a guy everyone else hated - even if that guy is 'his guy'.

GM's are hired at least in part on their HC lists. If you have a GM with a list full of people who the hiring group hates or has had bad experiences with - its unlikely that GM would get hired.

The GM knows that everyone in the building needs to be working towards the same goal and there needs to be respect for everyone in that process. You don't hire someone that is going to piss off your owner - even if that owner has given you sole power to make the hire. None of these guys work in a silo.

Dave Wandstett was on a podcast yesterday and mentioned how he worked for the Dolphins for 6 weeks between leaving Miami and getting hired by Jimmy in Dallas. Shula let him out of his contract so he could go to Dallas and met with him before he left. Dave said Shula told him the 3 most important people in the Organization are 1. The Owner, 2. The Owner, and 3. The Owner.

Everything starts at the top and having Owner buy in is critical. Even when the owner claims to be a 'fan' and not a football guy.

[dave99]

I think it's a mistake to think the possibilities for Poles were limited to the finalists either. Going with a dual approach always meant there was a likliehood of "natural" alignment. Part of the reason I think the idea that George could just hire a GM and step away. If that relationship is the most important (or second most after QB-coach) then you had to align the vision.

By all accounts running this on a dual process allowed them to find GM and coaches whose values aligned so that a GM was ready to go from day 1. Doesn't mean they worked backwards from coach. It means there was a common influence and vision (prob a combo of Polian and Armstrong helping bring whatever basic vision to life). That's okay. Too often fans just go with a random pairing (or to the other extreme just pair two guys from the same org) when they mock these decisions out, but they are highly tethered.

Let me ask the question this way: Does George hire Poles if Poles tells him he’s against all 3 of his finalists while interviewing for the GM job? I say no friggin way. And so by George making that part of his GM criteria, he indirectly makes the HC hire. Ensuring alignment means that George directly had a hand in the HC hire.

Some folks thought the process of interviewing GM's and HC was flawed.
Some folks thought the process was just fine.
And some folks seem to think that pointing out apparent flaws means you must be wearing a tinfoil hat to screen out the voices.
Of course nobody here knows what really happened, or if they do they haven't made that clear.
The writers that cover the Bears don't know and they have much better insight and sources.

But if I understand correctly, this is a fan site, the point of which is to express opinions both knowledgeable and wholly speculative. To vent and argue (respectfully) and generally distract ourselves from what we should be doing with this time.
However you roll on this I think it's more than fair to wonder if the Bears haven't once again jumped from the frying pan into the other side of the frying pan. (Fun Fact: Eberflus is the 17th HC in Bears history and the 5th since George took over).
Personally, I intend to stay cautiously optimistic while working to avoid the disappointment of rising expectations.
I hope he takes this team to new and dizzying heights. In the interim I intend to cast a gimlet eye.

[The Marshall Plan]

I don’t believe for a minute that the decision was 100% Poles’.

When did I say I was mad? Go back through the whole day. When was I ever pissed about this?

And you cherry picked one sentence out of my post.

[Yogi da Bear]

I'm all for the Gimlet Eye:



Can I get another round of them?

[o-pus #40 in B major]

[G08]

Just in looking at his time with the Colts, I love seeing top 10 defense in points allowed, but more importantly, I love seeing top 10 in takeaways. To do that 4 seasons in a row (10th, 10th, 5th and 2nd) is tremendous, and it will always give you a puncher's chance in the NFL.

[The Marshall Plan]

But at the same time, does Poles take the job if that is the case? He had other teams interested?

We will never know (reference UOK's sig).

See this is a thing.

Poles takes the job and then is basically asked to make arguably the most important decision of his tenure within the first five days.

That’s why you’ve got to ask candidates those questions. He had to have to been asked that.

Now the trick is was he asked who liked for the job or who he liked for the job amongst Persons A, B, C. I’m thinking it was a choice between three people.

So the situation is what it is but if Eberflus doesn’t work out don’t shit can the GM over it. And to be fair, they didn’t fire Pace over Fox.

[dave99]

I'm all for the Gimlet Eye:



Can I get another round of them?

Shaken, not stirred?

[G08]

THIS I can fucking get behind -- let's go!

[o-pus #40 in B major]

But at the same time, does Poles take the job if that is the case? He had other teams interested?

We will never know (reference UOK's sig).

See this is a thing.

Poles takes the job and then is basically asked to make arguably the most important decision of his tenure within the first five days.

That’s why you’ve got to ask candidates those questions. He had to have to been asked that.

Now the trick is was he asked who liked for the job or who he liked for the job amongst Persons A, B, C. I’m thinking it was a choice between three people.

So the situation is what it is but if Eberflus doesn’t work out don’t shit can the GM over it. And to be fair, they didn’t fire Pace over Fox.

Good point - Poles had to be in sync with ownership to get hired - so, yes if the HC is a fail the blame falls on ownership - ultimately, the blame for everything falls on ownership, is what I have learned.

[UOK]

When did I say I was mad? Go back through the whole day. When was I ever pissed about this?

And you cherry picked one sentence out of my post.

Fine.

I don’t believe for a minute that the decision was 100% Poles’.

Hmm, this is a pretty weird take. Let's see the reasoning:

Just use common sense.

Of course, I should've thought of that first.

Yes it’s entirely possible that Poles was asked during the interview process as to what his opinion is of the following 3 or 6 HC candidates.

Their discussions lasted days. I'm sure they talked about everything possible regarding HC hires and interviews.

But what if Poles put his foot down and said hey what about Bieniemy?

Then he would've interviewed him. He either felt like Bieniemy wasn't a worthwhile candidate or, more likely, he interviewed Eberflus and felt like it was the right choice to make. All indications are that Eberflus was Poles' decision, his candidate, and his choice, his alone.

I'll believe that the Bears gave Poles their shortlist and said, "choose from among these guys" when it gets reported. Everything I've seen so far indicates that's not how things played out.

Examples:

Aside from all this, how damning is it of Bieniemy that no serious calls again this year especially from the Bears who just hired somebody from the Chiefs?

Not really a comparable situation, with Poles being an executive, IMHO.

I don't know why Bieniemy's status dropped, but I'd like to hope it has nothing to do with race (which I don't believe it does) so much as the hesitation that it's Mahomes that makes the offense great, and thus relegates him to an unproven purgatory. He'd do better to take an OC job elsewhere without a future HOF quarterback and show that he's capable of sculpting and not just basket-weaving a scheme to exploit a lifetime talent, but who knows. There's still a possibility he gets hired to the Saints, Raiders, Vikings, Texans, or Dolphins.

[dplank]

Let me ask the question this way: Does George hire Poles if Poles tells him he’s against all 3 of his finalists while interviewing for the GM job? I say no friggin way. And so by George making that part of his GM criteria, he indirectly makes the HC hire. Ensuring alignment means that George directly had a hand in the HC hire.

Some folks thought the process of interviewing GM's and HC was flawed.
Some folks thought the process was just fine.
And some folks seem to think that pointing out apparent flaws means you must be wearing a tinfoil hat to screen out the voices.
Of course nobody here knows what really happened, or if they do they haven't made that clear.
The writers that cover the Bears don't know and they have much better insight and sources.

But if I understand correctly, this is a fan site, the point of which is to express opinions both knowledgeable and wholly speculative. To vent and argue (respectfully) and generally distract ourselves from what we should be doing with this time.
However you roll on this I think it's more than fair to wonder if the Bears haven't once again jumped from the frying pan into the other side of the frying pan. (Fun Fact: Eberflus is the 17th HC in Bears history and the 5th since George took over).
Personally, I intend to stay cautiously optimistic while working to avoid the disappointment of rising expectations.
I hope he takes this team to new and dizzying heights. In the interim I intend to cast a gimlet eye.

Totally agree, people are wrong painting anyone who casts any doubt on the process as a moronic hater who will be angry at anything. I don’t even hate Eberflus and have said so repeatedly. But to think that Poles managed to source a HC hire before he even got a nameplate outside his office is just silliness - George clearly “aligned” his preferred GM and his preferred HC (of 3). That means, by definition, he heavily influenced the HC hire - period. I’m not a hater for recognizing this nor is TMP or anyone else. I hope it works out and Eberflus is the goods.

I’m happy to hear he’s looking into the Shanahan tree for OC! That hire will tell the story for Eberflus in the short term, he must find someone that can maximize Fields immense talent.