The Chicago Bears have already made one decision official to kick off what could be the franchise’s most critical offseason in history.

The Bears will in fact be retaining head coach Matt Eberflus for the 2024 season after reports floated around for weeks regarding his return for a third season.

While speaking with reporters on Wednesday following the conclusion of the 2023 regular season, Bears general manager made the announcement official and doubled down in the support for the man sitting beside him.

"We had some adversity early in the season and the middle of the season," Poles said. "[Eberflus'] ability to stand strong and keep the team together was incredible. His ability to to adapt and adjust as we went along. He had sudden change in terms of his role, and I thought we benefited from that, I thought we got better from that point. And I'm really happy for him."

The decision to keep Eberflus for a third season was met with mixed feelings from the Bears fanbase but it was a decision that seemingly was backed by everyone in the Bears organization, players included.

The entire Bears team turned the corner throughout the second half of the 2023 regular season, giving the front office more confidence in Eberflus and keeping the stability the same, albeit for the time being.

While keeping the consistency and stability in place is ideal for the players and team in general going into next season, it couldn’t have been decided at a worse time. As the hiring cycle begins for the offseason, eight teams have open positions in terms of the head coach role. The Bears were widely expected to be one of those teams.

Numerous highly-regarded coordinators will soon be filling those roles and veteran coaches are expected to be on the move at a rate extremely higher than usual. Even in the last 24 hours in the football world, three of the game's best coaches in history in Patriots' Bill Belichick, Seahawks' Pete Carroll, and Alabama's Nick Saban have moved on from their head coaching role.

There are still considerable doubts regarding Eberflus' future in Chicago beyond the 2024 season and the organization might be missing out on the biggest head coaching cycle in recent memory in favor of keeping things the same.

Belichick, the league's best coach in history, is on the move for the first time in over 20 years. Mike Vrabel, easily a Top-10 coach in the league, was suddenly made available by the Titans. Top coordinators such as Lions' Ben Johnson, Cowboys' Dan Quinn, and Texans' Bobby Slowik have received numerous interview requests. And that's not even factoring in Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh who is heavily rumored to return to the NFL after winning the National Championship.

Out of all those names, the Bears opted for stability, but for how long now becomes the question. Many reporters and fans linked the Bears to Harbaugh throughout the majority of the season, but Poles put an end to all of those talks on Wednesday.

"I haven't talked to Jim. He's the coach for Michigan," Poles said. "Like I said, we're going with Matt and I gave the reasons why. I didn't go talk to anybody."

Making a decision on who will be the team's head coach can be one of the hardest decisions for an NFL general manager and it's one that rarely works out long-term. Even when you look at the hiring cycle when the Bears named Eberflus as the head coach, three of the ten coaches hired that offseason didn't even make it to the end of their second season.

Poles and the Bears front office truly believe they have made the best decision for the future of the organization, whether the fans like it or not. Poles is hoping to build a strong foundation in Chicago and Eberflus is a key part of that foundation, but we'll see how long that foundation will be left standing.

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