Bears Look for Way Out of a Mess

GM Ryan Poles didn't mince words.

"First and foremost, to hit it straight on, we have adversity right now," Poles said.

Poles took the occasion of the 0-2 start, Alan Williams sudden resignation and Wednesday's Justin Fields comments about being overcoached to try and calm fears about an organization meltdown amid a 12-game losing streak.

Things will take an upturn, Poles insisted.

"Slow start, 0-2, not where you want to be," he said. "We've dealt with life issues. We've dealt with injuries and that's all real and that's a part of what we do and what we gotta deal with. The beautiful thing about our philosophy here, our organization is we're solution-oriented. We work together to find these solutions and solve our problems to get everything back on track.

"To make it really, really clear, I know the outside noise, but no one in our building is panicking. No one is flinching at any situations, not our owner, not our president, our head coach, not myself, none of our players. Everyone is focusing on solving the issues that we have so that we can be a better football team."

Poles may not have had to cope with 12-game losing streaks, but says he and Eberflus both are familiar with hard times and talked about it.

"We've both been through slow starts, rough starts and got things back on track in our background, him in Indy, I think it was 2018, myself in Kansas City in 2015," Poles said. "So, sometimes you have these and you gotta fight through it and figure out how you can be a better football team. Got a ton of faith in Flus as a leader. He's done a great job and then as a defensive play caller as well, got a ton of faith there."

The resignation of Williams after more than a week away from the team without explanation means Eberflus is in charge of calling defensive signals. Poles said there could be some other assignments announced regarding the staff.

"Is the situation, a sudden change easy? No, it's not," Poles said. "But he handled it well. He's leaned on his staff that has experience to help him get through that and be successful. We'll figure out all the titles and everything I'm sure next week. None of that has been dealt with right now. We'll get through this week."

The rumors about police being at Halas Hall regarding Williams were false.

"Yesterday, we talked about Halas Hall being raided," Poles said. "That's completely false. Don't even know where that came from. Worked with Kevin and George, all of our leadership, to make sure we were handling it the right way, communicating properly and obviously everything concluded yesterday. But we have a ton of confidence in our plan moving forward."

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Poles' own stake in this situation is the talent he brought in for the roster. He stands by what he assembled.

"It's got to gel, it's got to work together," Poles said. "It doesn't happen overnight. Would you like it to? Absolutely. I wish the preseason was cleaner where everyone was going a ton of reps. It didn't happen that way. We had to adjust."

They adjusted to compensate for injuries.

"I believe that we have a better team," he said. "It takes time to gel. We're doing things the right way and unfortunately sometimes the right way is the hardest way. But in order to have success for a long period of time, we gotta go through these things to be a good football team."

Poles wanted to set up a dividing point in the losing streak, with last year's 10 games in the ancient past. It occurred when they had gutted the roster for salary cap purposes.

"It's not a completely, it's the majority of the team, it's very different than what it was last year," Poles said. "And mentally, we don't just drag every year with us into the next year.

"When you're not winning games, I can see the connect there."

The Bears continue to say the losing an tumultuous start hasn't affected players in the locker room. However, Fields' comments Wednesday about being overcoached into robotic play sounds like it's taking a toll on at least one player.

"No one took it personally," Poles said. "We all know we have a hand in our success and we want him to be successful and it takes everyone for him to be successful, including himself. I kinda thought he hit on all of that. It was no shock to anyone."

Poles could understand if Fields is irritated by the team's situation.

"In terms of Justin and his frustration, I mean, the guy has been successful the moment he stepped into high school football," Poles said. "So he’s dealing with adversity and dealing with taking his game to the next level through many different situations and change. I think that's where you get the frustration from."

Poles sees time available for Fields to adjust to a changing role in his own position.

"You have a guy who hasn't had the cleanest start to his career, who last year, you know, with the roster, had to put the team on his back, do some unbelievable things athletically," Poles said. "Now, he gets talent around him and has to figure out and balance when to do those cool things athletically, when to lean on others and that is sometimes a gray place to live in.

"That takes time. That takes time on task for him to take that next step and everyone is on board helping him get into that place for him to be successful."

Poles sees only one way out of the team's rut, and it's together.

"It's not panicking," Poles said. "It's taking everything one day at a time. It's communicating with your leadership group to make sure that you're making good decisions for the organization."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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