Ryan Poles’ slow first step leaves Bears in uncertainty

It started with a house-cleaning and ended with a surrender. There’s a fine line between a white flag and a red one.

The 2022 Bears season could go down as one of the best bad seasons in franchise history — a necessary first step of a much-needed rebuild. Or maybe just another misstep by a storied NFL franchise wracked by dysfunction for most of the 30 seasons since the end of the Mike Ditka era.

We won’t know just how good or bad this season was until 2023, when the Bears either take a step toward playoff contention or continue to spin their wheels with a familiar combination of failure — underachieving performance, injuries, quarterback stagnation or regression — that leaves them closer to Square One than the postseason.

But as it stands today after completing a 3-14 season with 29-13 loss to the Vikings on Sunday at Soldier Field, Poles’ path has the Bears in position to at least think they’re heading in the right direction. The rest is up to him.

“You look at results for sure, but you also look at having a broader view of what you’re getting done. It’s laying the foundation,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “There’s also development of of the young core players we have … the rookie class — we played a lot of those guys. Second-year players like Justin [Fields and Darnell] Mooney … Cole Kmet is one of those younger-type players.”

And don’t forget the No. 1 overall pick — or whatever bounty that brings.

“Free agency and the draft is no different,” Eberflus said. “It’s up to the coaches to develop those guys and fit them into the schemes so we can play winning football.”

Poles has several holes to fill and question marks at almost every key position heading into the 2023 season — from head coach to offensive and defensive coordinator to No. 1 receiver to quarterback. He’s got a lot to prove, maybe the most to prove.

Poles has been far from perfect in his rookie season. He didn’t trade Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith until mid-season. He didn’t give Justin Fields enough weapons to get a true evaluation of Fields’ passing ability. Rookie Velus Jones looks overdrafted. Poles traded the 32nd pick in the draft for Chase Claypool. The offensive line that is supposed to be Poles’ specialty was underwhelming — not much better, if better at all, than anything Ryan Pace put together in his seven seasons.

But nothing Poles did was defining. There was no trade-up-for-Trubisky moment that will haunt him. Nothing he did indicated he will fail. He hasn’t proven anything, but hasn’t disqualified himself, either.

And that goes for Eberflus as well. Like Poles, Eberflus hasn’t left any red flags that indicated he can’t do this. On the contrary, he’s been pretty good at the head-coaching part of the job. For all the close games the Bears lost this season, there were few if any egregious examples of poor game-management. His defense was a disappointment, even considering the departures and all the rookies starting. The H.I.T.S. is more real than a myth, but still just like any other coaching philosophy — it takes good players to make it work.

Eberflus played to win all season — except maybe at the end. But as the losses piled up he emphasized the foundation the Bears were laying. And like most foundations, this one was mostly underground and hard to see. This team doesn’t have the remnants of Lovie Smith’s defense. It doesn’t have Jay Cutler. It doesn’t have the best defense in football. It’s not a playoff team with Mitch Trubisky. Who knows where this one will end up, but there’s nowhere to go but up. The Bears have never been 3-14, but they’ve been in worse spots than this.

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