‘Process over outcome’: Poles vows changes after Bears' collapse

Bears general manager Ryan Poles met with reporters Tuesday at Halas Hall, two days after his team ended a disappointing season.

Poles’ third season as general manager didn’t go as he expected. The Bears missed the playoffs for a fourth straight year, suffered a 10-game losing streak for the second time in Poles’ tenure and fired its head coach and offensive coordinator during the season for the first time in franchise history.

Now Poles will try to right the ship, starting with finding a new head coach. The Bears have already reached out to candidates and will start conducting interviews this week.

Here are five of the most interesting things Poles said Tuesday.

On what went wrong

The Bears entered this season with expectations of taking a big step after Poles tore down and rebuilt the Bears roster during his first two seasons. Instead, they made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

After starting the season 4-2, the Bears lost 10 straight games. The streak included memorable losses, including a last-second loss to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary pass, a last-second blocked field goal against the Green Bay Packers and a botched final series against the Detroit Lions that led the team to fire former head coach Matt Eberflus.

“We lost games,” Poles said. “At the end of the day, the wins and losses and the record, that’s on me. I’m in charge of the football operation, I’ve been entrusted to get this organization to a championship caliber and we came up short with that. I have to take responsibility for that.”

The Bears' season turned south after its loss to the Commanders in Week 8. Poles was disappointed the Bears failed to respond to it. While he understood the emotion that went along with losing in such a dramatic fashion, Poles said the Bears had to do a better job of showing resilience.

Poles believed those issues stemmed from training camp. He didn’t feel the Bears built the foundation for the season the right way, which stopped them from accomplishing their goals.

“I think we have to change back to our process over outcome,” Poles said. “I think this year, with the excitement of the season, it was very much outcome over process. Winning, expectations, all of those things, the goals are fine, you never want to back down from that. But the detail, the accountability, the competitive poise in critical situations, finding that edge to win games is something that we came up short with.”

On his status, relationship with Kevin Warren

Poles didn’t specify whether the organization gave him a contract extension, citing it as a personal matter. Poles did say he would address how much time he has left on his contract with candidates during interviews.

On Tuesday, both Warren and team chairman George McCaskey said Poles’ contract situation wouldn’t be an issue in the team’s coaching search.

The three also clarified the chain of command. The coach will report to Poles, who reports to Warren, who reports to McCaskey. While the search committee would be collaborative, Poles will make the ultimate decision.

“I’ll end up selecting the coach, I’m taking the lead on that,” Poles said. “(McCaskey) and (Warren) have put me in charge of that. And that will be the relationship between the coach and I.”

Poles, unprompted Tuesday, also brought up his relationship with Warren. There had been rumors Warren would be the one leading the coaching search, leading to some friction between Warren and Poles.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Poles said. “You spend almost every single day together, talking about solutions and the direction of where we want to be and where we’re going to go. It is so far from the truth. It’s a little disappointing to hear that.”

On changes he’d like to see

One of the common overarching issues players noted during the losing streak was the lack of accountability. On Tuesday, Poles confirmed he noticed those root issues during training camp.

Poles said systems of accountability are important, no matter how tough they can be.

“Sometimes that can be uncomfortable,” Poles said. “I call that healthy friction and I definitely think we need more of that, and that would help result in closing the gap on some of these games that we came up short.”

Poles reinforced his support that the Bears had a good group of players he thinks could be good leaders moving forward. The Bears will also look to see whether any additions need to be made into the locker room.

But Poles challenged some of his current Bears players to take more of a leadership role moving forward.

“There’s continuity,” Poles said. “We aren’t going to take things personally anymore, amongst each other, both in the front office and then football operations, but also in the locker room and in coaching. We’ve got to be able to have healthy friction like I talked about, to say, ‘Hey, that’s not the way we’re supposed to do it.’ Let’s clean it up and get better, because, again, that will show up later in the season.”

On Caleb Williams' rookie year

Poles didn’t hesitate when asked what he built during his three seasons in charge. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was the first name he listed.

“I think from a quarterback position, I think he’s hit,” Poles said. “Again, he hasn’t even hit close to his ceiling and hit a lot of milestones that haven’t been hit here in a very long time.”

The No. 1 overall pick’s season ended with mixed results. He broke the franchise’s rookie passing record with 3,541 yards and took down an NFL rookie record when he threw 326 consecutive passes without an interception. He also led a lackluster offense that struggled to score points throughout the season.

Poles took ownership that his plan for Williams didn’t work during his rookie season. He said there were some compatibility hiccups to make sure things were taught the right way with former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

Williams will be a big draw for whoever interviews to become the Bears’ head coach. In Poles’ view, there’s plenty of untapped potential after a strong rookie year.

“I love the flashes that he showed,” Poles said. “I love the two-minute drills and his ability to put the team in a position to win games multiple times in the season, that’s a championship caliber trait.”