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The process of getting to know one another, for Bears coach Matt Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles, was deliberate and detailed; since the new bosses in Chicago had never worked together, and came from different football lineages, it was always going to take time for their relationship to form.
Still, there were little wins along the way. One came on in Week 7.
The Bears were up 10–0 early in the second quarter on a rainy, cold October evening in Foxborough, Mass., on their way to upsetting the Patriots. Mac Jones was flushed out of the pocket, to his right, and tried to fit a hole shot in to Jonnu Smith, between the corner and safety. The problem, for Jones, was Chicago’s rookie safety Jaquan Brisker, whose athleticism was enough to slam Jones’s throwing window shut.
The second-round pick skied over Smith to grab the first interception of his career, which prompted Eberflus to glance over at the box where Poles sat in at Gillette Stadium. He was too far away to see his GM, of course. But the symbolism of the moment trumped whatever Eberflus may have been able to see.
“I was like, ,” the coach says. “But that’s what it is, right? The background that I have is in college. I was in college all those years, and I was around Gary Pinkel, was around Don James, and learned to be able to evaluate those guys—big, long, fast, you look at the traits, and then you have to be able to fit the vision into what you see. It’s cool because he has the same vision.
“It’s just … pretty cool to be able to have that same type of the way we look at a player.”
Eberflus was telling the story at a high-top table on the second floor of the Indianapolis JW Marriott—some four months after Brisker made that play—with Poles sitting right next to him. Monday being the second-to-last day of the combine, Eberflus had just checked some luggage at the front desk, planning to go see some family in town later in the day, but he might as well have been packed for the next seven weeks.
Both know what sort of work lies ahead. And how much the result of it will mean.
In a way, the hope is that how they came to a consensus on using the pick they got for Khalil Mack (48th) on Brisker last year is a precursor for whatever they will do with the first pick in the coming weeks. In another way, making that second-round pick wasn’t, and can’t be, like this at all—no one’s job was on the line when Poles pulled the Penn State safety’s name off the board late that Friday night last April.
Poles and Eberflus know exactly how important it is that they get it right. And the plan the Bears have put in place—which we’ll detail right here in this week’s MMQB column—certainly reflects all of that.
