Bears President & CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles are confident that Thomas Brown will excel as the team's interim head coach.
"Thomas is incredibly bright," Warren said. "He's hard working. He's grown up around the game. He's talented. He has great leadership capabilities. He's decisive and he's clear. And I'm excited to watch him lead our football team."
Brown was hired by the Bears Jan. 30 as passing game coordinator. He replaced Shane Waldron as play caller Nov. 12 and helped revitalize the offense over the last three games. His work developing rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has been particularly impressive.
Sunday's game against the 49ers in San Francisco will be his first as the Bears' interim head coach.
"He'll lean on the people around him to continue to let our offense elevate and Thomas can continue to lead our football team as the head coach," Poles said. "I'm really excited about these next five weeks and the opportunity that we have, but I do think that it's critical that we focus on San Francisco for the remainder of this week as we get prepared and get our football team prepared. I look forward to circling back in the near future to talk about the search as we put those plans together."
Poles will lead the search for a permanent head coach while working closely with Warren throughout the process.
"Ryan Poles is the general manager of the Chicago Bears, and he will remain the general manager of the Chicago Bears," Warren said. "Ryan is young. He is talented. He is bright. He is hard working. He has done everything in his power on a daily basis to bring a winner to Chicago. And I am confident in Ryan. My faith remains strong in Ryan.
"As leader of our football operations department and as our general manager, Ryan will serve as the point person for our upcoming search for a permanent head football coach. Now we will work in tandem. We will work closely. We will work together on a daily basis to make sure that we bring the best person to the Chicago Bears as our permanent football coach. You have our word on that. It will be an exhaustive search. It will be organized. It will be diligent. We will do it the right way."
The Bears know exactly what they're seeking in a new head coach.
"We need an individual who has extremely high standards," Warren said, "who is tough, who is demanding, who is bright, who has attention to detail, who seeks and will win championships, who creates an environment of accountability, who is creative, who is intelligent, who is a decisive decision maker, and who will represent the City of Chicago, all of our fans, this franchise, in a manner that is well deserved."
"It starts with a foundation and making sure we identify what we want to come in here and help us win championships," Poles said. "And then casting a wide net and taking as much time as we need to find the best candidate."
Whoever that candidate is must be able to get the best out of Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft.
"We've seen his growth through some situations that we've had so far," Poles said. "We've always got to keep that in mind and we're going to make sure, again, we go back to what's best for the Bears. His development is critical, so we need to make sure there's alignment in that space so he can continue to get better."
Warren anticipates there being no shortage of qualified candidates who want to work for the Bears given the organization boasts a passionate fanbase, storied tradition and talented young roster. The team also will have ample salary cap space and draft capital to upgrade its roster in the offseason.
"This will be the most coveted job in the National Football League this year," Warren said.
The importance of hiring a new permanent head coach is not lost on the Bears' President and CEO.
"You hate saying that decisions are going to set the trajectory of the franchise over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years, [but] this is one that will," Warren said. "It is critically important that we put all of our energy in to making sure that we exhaust this search [and] get the right person here."
While the Bears will conduct that exhaustive search, their season is still far from over.
"We will find that person to be able to lead our franchise," Warren said. "But we have to keep in mind that we have five regular-season games left to play, one this weekend at San Francisco. We're going to do everything we possibly can from ownership to Ryan, myself, to the coaches, to staff, to our players, we support all of our coaches, and especially coach Brown, to allow us to perform at the highest level.
"I am confident, I'm energized, I'm excited about this unique opportunity. We will get this right and we'll be sitting up here in the future at some point in time that we'll look back onto this day and say, 'This was the day that really we started pointing in the right direction to build the franchise that all of us know that we want to build.'"
