There have been plenty of rumors about the marriage between General Manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus. The Chicago Bears hired Poles first but had Eberflus as a finalist before Poles got the go-ahead from upstairs. The timing was confusing, and it appears the Bears had a list of coaching finalists before they even made a GM hire.
However, Ryan Poles put those questions to bed with firm answers that stated that he picked Matt Eberflus himself, and he was not told to lean one way or the other.
Poles started by saying that he and Matt had known each other through past networking opportunities. Poles had always envisioned himself as a General Manager and used networking events to learn about what he wanted from a head coach, as well as create a list of candidates.
That is when Eberflus was made a candidate for Ryan Poles. So, when Ryan Poles was interviewed he brought his list of candidates with him and Matt Ebeflus was on there.
If anything, you could argue that perhaps the Bears hired Poles knowing that he was high on Eberflus, but surely Poles won them himself in the interview.
Poles being high on Eberflus helped his case, and got him the chance to interview Eberflus. Poles admitted that once he interviewed Eberflus he knew that he was going to be the head coach of the Chicago Bears.
"“The moment he walked into the room, I knew he was the guy,”"
Ryan Poles was asked a follow-up question about whether or not he wanted to widen the search beyond the finalists that the Chicago Bears laid out for him. He said that he had the chance to do so, but did not want to waste the time of anyone else.
"“I was given that opportunity — and I found him,”"
This is about the clear cut as you can make it. If you listened to Ryan Poles in his press conference he was very direct and straightforward in everything he said. He was not going to lie or sugarcoat anything. Hearing him say adamantly that he had Eberflus on his list beforehand, that he chose him, and that he had a chance to interview more people but turned it down should be all you need to know.
The marriage between coach and GM may not work, but at the very least, this is not like the Ryan Pace situation with John Fox.