A Report surfaced last week that Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren nixed the idea of the team potentially reaching out to hire then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh in January. It appears general manager Ryan Poles was an obstacle in Bill Belichick’s decision to take the head coaching job at North Carolina this week.
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham dropped a report on the road leading Belichick to take a college coaching job. The theory of the report was the six-time Super Bowl head coach for the New England Patriots gave the league the middle finger after seeing the league devolve into “stupidness” in recent years because of politics and bureaucracy.
Bill Belichick thinks the Chicago Bears are going offensive
Per Wickersham, Belichick and former assistants Matt Patricia, Michael Lombardi, and Josh McDaniels (among others) met weekly during the season to discuss matters related to the NFL and their future employment. The group deemed, based on their history of the Bears and the front office, that the team would look for an offensive-minded coach after firing Matt Eberflus–probably Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
“According to sources with direct knowledge, the group deemed that the Chicago Bears were probably the most attractive job, but that team brass was unlikely to consider Belichick,” Wickersham wrote. “The group expects the same thing that most around the league do: that the Bears will go offense, hoping to give quarterback Caleb Williams a chance at a career, probably targeting Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.”
Ryan Poles’ philosophy isn’t attractive to intelligent coaches
While the 72-year-old head coach claimed he was willing to give up control of personnel decisions, Wickersham didn’t think Belichick would mix well with a general manager like Poles, who is headed toward the hot seat.
“Was Belichick, who has had his share of player-evaluation whiffs but has also drafted the greatest quarterback and tight end ever, along with Hall of Fame defensive tackle Richard Seymour and several others who will join him in Canton, really going to abide by the philosophies of someone like Fontenot or Bears general manager Ryan Poles, if Chicago had hired Belichick after this year,” Wickersham asked.
Belichick was annoyed listening to general Terry Fontenot sound like a know-it-all about the draft process in January.
Poles is safe unless the Bears get a HC that knows what he’s doing
In his question-and-answer column this week, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune hinted that Poles would be safe this offseason because the Bears would be going with a weaker head coach who would not be bringing his own “personnel man” to Halas Hall.
“Poles’ job security is something of interest to folks in front offices around the league, and the general consensus is he will be safe,” Biggs wrote. “The only caveat from those I have chatted with is the possibility the Bears land on a new coach who has enough juice to bring a personnel man with him. That’s a possibility that cannot be dismissed. If you were paying attention to what Warren said, Poles appears to be in good standing for 2025.”
The Bears could have brought in Belichick and a white-collared assistant to help with personnel matters. But it appears Chicago would rather go with a weak-leveraged coach in this hiring cycle and keep Poles, thus reinforcing Warren’s dynamic as being the man in charge.
One can’t argue with Belichick’s decision to leave the NFL in its current state. The Bears aren’t making the case that they’re a well-run front office with how they’ve handled anything about the head coaching decision since they botched Eberflus’ final press conference.
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