Bears general manager Ryan Poles addressed the media Thursday at Halas Hall about the state of the team.
"First and foremost, to hit it straight on, we have adversity right now," Poles said. "Slow start, 0-2, not where you want to be. 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've got to 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.
"[Coach Matt Eberflus] and I were talking about it last night. 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. So, sometimes you have these and you've got to fight through it and figure out how you can be a better football team."
Poles discussed what quarterback Justin Fields had to say to reporters Wednesday.
"In terms of Justin, I can't be more clear than this: no one in our entire building, none of our coaches, see Justin as a finger-pointer at all," Poles said. "That kid is always taking ownership of anything that has happened on the field. He takes it head on. He works, he grinds, he puts his head down, he works with his teammates, he works with his coaches to find solutions. Really everything is trying to figure out what's going on.
"In my opinion, you've got a young quarterback trying to figure it out. You have a guy who hasn't had the cleanest start to his career who last year, with the roster, had to put the team on his back, do some unbelievable things athletically. 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 also discussed Eberflus' continued involvement with the defense.
"Got a ton of faith in Flus as a leader," Poles said. "He's done a great job and then as a defensive play caller as well, got a ton of faith there. Is the situation, a sudden change easy? No, it's not. But he handled it well. He's leaned on his staff that has experience to help him get through that and be successful."
Poles concluded his opening remarks by reiterating his faith in Bears players.
"I said it from the beginning, I feel good about this roster on paper," Poles said. "It's got to gel. It's got to work together. It doesn't happen overnight. Would you like it to? Absolutely. I wish the preseason was cleaner where everyone was going to get a ton of reps. It didn't happen that way. We had to adjust. I believe that we have a better team. 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've got to go through these things to be a good football team."
