After more than a decade of watching him operate, Chicago Bears fans know that George McCaskey is out of his depth as team chairman. He clearly lacks the necessary leadership and common sense to run a football organization. It isn’t because he is malicious or bull-headed. It is simply a case where the responsibilities of the job far exceed his capabilities. That is why the Bears have routinely failed to operate like a proper professional organization for years. They can’t get the GM or head coaching positions right.
Even something as logical as the alignment between those two jobs seems to escape him. In his entire tenure as chairman, McCaskey has only hired the GM and head coach in the same off-season twice. That was in 2015 and 2022. Phil Emery was hired before Marc Trestman. Ryan Pace kept his job when the Bears hired Matt Nagy. Now it appears Ryan Poles will get another shot after misfiring on Matt Eberflus. That isn’t even the worst part of it. Many have wondered if Poles will receive a contract extension to line him up with the next coach. McCaskey’s answer was alarming, to say the least.
“In interviews that I’ve participated in, that’s never been a factor. No one’s ever come in and said I’m not coming here unless the GM and I are on the same timeline. I don’t think that’s going to be a factor.”
George McCaskey doesn’t appear interested in extending Poles.
There are a few reasons to believe this. For one, there’s been no announcement that the team has done this. In 2018, word broke the day after the regular season that Pace had been extended. It wasn’t the case here. Poles dodged questions about it during his own presser, stating he’d keep that information between him and the coach candidates. Throw McCaskey’s comment on top of that, and you can’t help but think the Bears are going into a crucial off-season with a lame-duck GM. What credible coach would want to attach themselves to such a situation?
It is hard to understand how the Bears can be this ignorant. Then again, 14 years of evidence have pinpointed how out of his depth George McCaskey is. It feels like this process is nothing more than a roll of the dice and hope they come up favorable this time. There is a strong argument that Poles doesn’t deserve another crack at this. Yet if ownership is dead set on giving it to him, the least they can do is ensure the incoming coach doesn’t have to worry about a sudden change in leadership if next season goes wrong, too.
