@@Chicago Bears

Is the Washington Post a reputable source?

  • September 27, 2023


[The Bears have been imploding for 13 games. What happens next?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/09/26/bears-losing-streak/)

From the article: “Kevin has seen enough to clean it out,” said one NFL GM, who is not authorized to speak publicly about other teams’ management decisions and structures, on the condition of anonymity. “It’s my understanding that he has the power to do it, and the coach and GM can’t go around him to ownership. Maybe he feels a little pressure to keep Poles, but he sees how [messed] up it is there, and the more attention all of this gets, the easier it is for him to do what he has to do.”

And also…

“Much of this rot may be rooted in yet another bizarre hiring process that somehow netted this history-making tandem of coach and GM. After waiting too long to fire coach Matt Nagy, the Bears commissioned an awkward process with longtime chief executive **Ted Phillips (already transitioning toward retirement) seemingly at the helm and Hall of Fame former executive Bill Polian commandeering the interviews. Trace Armstrong, a former Bears defensive end who’s now an agent for coaches and general managers, also held influence in the process**, according to the GM who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

“This was always doomed,” said another NFL executive, who was a candidate for the Bears’ GM position and remains in the league. His employer would not permit him to speak freely about another team’s inner workings. **“Remember, you had Ted running one search, and then it really was like Polian running his own search … at the same time, and then everyone is wondering if they’re just going to hire one of Trace’s guys, no matter what.”**

Figured the sub would be in the mood for something that isn’t a hot take from Twitter/X or BAnon conspiracy theories about secret lists of candidates, etc.

Will Kevin Warren do what needs to be done? We will have to wait and see.

41 comments

  1. Classic Bears including Trace Armstrong in the hiring process and they end up hiring guys he represents

  3. Are we sure the bears ownership even really likes football? Why can’t they make their own decisions?

  5. If I’m Warren I’m firing Eberflus and Co if they can’t win at least 2 of the next 3. Since they probably won’t, my next step would be to bring in a respected QB-centric coach (None come to mind as I write this, but I’m sure there are several out there available) to install a game plan tailor-made for Justin Field’s strengths and see what I can salvage from that kid in the final 11-12 weeks of the season. As far as the Defense is concerned they appear to be a Frankenstein-like mish mash of players that don’t really fit a specific Defense. Bring in someone who can run a Base 4-3/4-2-5 and analyze what we really have. Then at the end of the season evaluate the interim coaches you brought in and explore who’s on the market.

  7. I tend not to put any stock in anonymous sources for two reasons

    1)They can be entirely made up (not likely with the Washington Post but could still happen)

    2) If a source is speaking under the shield of anonymity, they have no incentive to tell the truth. They can spin whatever narrative they want without repercussions.

  8. I mean, none of this sounds implausible. It’s not like it clashes with some great rep the Bears have around the league

    GMs and executives talk, so it’s probably pretty common knowledge how the hiring process went.

  9. The only thing I’ve learned from being a fan of this team for a long time is that they will always make the wrong decision no matter what. I have zero faith Kevin Warren does the right thing.

  12. WaPo’s standards have definitely fallen since they broke the watergate scandal, but broken clocks are still right twice a day and this article isn’t wrong

  13. Weird people hiring weird people. By all means don’t get a guy like Harbaugh. Find another awkward guy that fits in with the rest of the strangeness. Can we be done with Bill Polian, seems he’s been involved in hiring coaches here for 20 years.

  14. This is 100% burn it all down mode.

    I could imagine that Warren might possibly allow Poles to hang on and make his own pick for GM and new QB… but I’d think he would be better off just starting completely fresh with a new GM too.

  16. >Analysis by Jason La Canfora

    Kind of the key detail here that others seemed to skip in regards to its reliability. It reads like speculation from people on the outside on what they thought might be happening but I wouldnt read into it as proof of anything.

  18. Guaranteed that source is Louis Reddick who is still pissed we didn’t hire his failed ass for the job

  19. No matter how you slice, we are still 3-5 seasons away from the Bears fielding a decent team. Maybe more than that.

  20. It’s sadly comical that some fans are looking at Kevin Warren as a savior. There is zero basis to believe that. We’re talking about a lawyer by trade who had his first NFL job when he was 44. Never played football, never coached it, never hired GMs or coaches, has never done anything in terms of personnel management to make you think he knows anything about the game or how to differentiate good NFL GMs/coaches from shitty ones.

    There’s no savior in the building. None of these people have any answers and none of it will ever get better until the ownership changes.

  21. This is why NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

    until this shit gets addressed and handled we could have a prime Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, Bo Jackson, babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, tiger woods, Pele,

    It wouldnt matter who we had on the roster. This team is broken from the very top.

  22. >”Kevin has seen enough to clean it out” said one NFL GM

    I mean, yes. Notice how he never says anything suggesting he’s actually talked to Kevin Warren or anything like that. Even armchair GM’s know that the Bears clown show is now bad enough to justify cleaning house mid-season so unless Warren’s not actually following the team at all, it’s a pretty damned safe assumption that he’s seen enough to clean house.

  24. This is rough. My biggest concern is if these guys are just hiring their friends/ helping their friends. How do we know Warren isn’t apart of this rot as well? What ties does he have with the McCaskeys?

  25. If I were to make a spinoff of The Office, but related to a football team, I’d totally just base it off the Bears.

  26. My personal guess is everyone is gone at seasons end. Poles and down is gone and Warren tries to build everything back up. The one advantage he has is a decent cap situation and most likely 2 top 5 draft picks. They should be taking Williams and Olu with those picks. Get Dave Canales from Tampa for head coach and roll from there.

  27. Strap in folks It is WEEK FOUR and this team looks to at best be a 3 win team again….. The amount of internal finger pointing is going to be so so bad.

    The entire process was laughable and we should have all seen this coming. As I tell family and friends, this week has been the volcanic eruption of 30 years of organizational rot finally boiling over.

    Going through a FOURTH hiring process in a decade in which you have dinosaurs choose a dude who uses cliched acronyms (which Im sure they all loved) and basically forcing that person on the GM they chose all while the failed President of the team was cleaning out his desk is just so so bad.

    I know the blame goes everywhere here but I honestly feel kinda bad for Poles. He had his choice of about 3 candidates. Sure he could have not taken the job but you don’t get opportunities much in a league of just 32 teams. And I still believe he’s made a number of good moves considering he had to tear down the mess Pace built. The return on most guys he traded has been good. The trade down to 9 I think was smart. He’s just stuck seeing one of the worst coaches…ever not do a god damn thing with the personnel.

  29. >Of course, this regime is hardly alone in its futility. The Bears have one playoff win since they reached the Super Bowl after the 2006 season and just seven postseason berths since 1992. ***Losing is their brand.*** It’s how fast Eberflus and Poles have sunk that’s most remarkable, even by Bears standards

    Oh yeah this seasons gonna get ugly – they usually wait til the end of the year to start bringing up the decades of futility. This is cutting right to the chase in week 4

  30. personally i think itd be a mistake to get rid of Poles right now. I know this is going to get a lot of downvotes but I dont think hes the problem. You can give someone the best tools in the world but if they dont know how to change pipes it wont matter. Eberflus is a guy who doesnt know how to change pipes.

  31. It should be worth noting that Jason La Canfora HATES the Bears. Like, unreasonably hates them. Like, they didn’t just deny him an internship, they also called him fat in the interview.

    WaPo is reputable, however, and I doubt he would put something like this out without sources and information.

  35. I mean its a project to salvage what we got at this point. We have two first round picks probably in the top ten at this point and 2 of the same in the second round. I don’t mind Pole’s vision of draft and long term success, we will see what else we can salvage from this team if it doesn’t turn it around

  36. Jason La Confora is about as unreliable as they get. He may be correct here but I don’t trust his track record.

  37. I don’t buy this at all. Kevin has been on the job for what, 6 months. This article is just speculation and quotes from coaches who didn’t get the job.

    However, I hope Kevin Warren cleans house. Especially if we get two high first round picks.

  38. Warren wiping Halas Hall clean on January 8, 2024 is literally the only thing that will give me even the slightest little shred of hope. Anything less, and it’ll just be business as usual.

  40. Blow it all up on Black Monday. Nothing will be gained from patch up work 3-4 games into the season. Play out the season, spend these months mapping out the plan and lining up your strategy and candidates, and come Black Monday nuke it all up to hell.

  41. OMFG if Kevin Warren cleans house after the next game he’ll be a Bears legend forever. I’ll get a Kevin Warren tattoo on the left side of my chest.

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