Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus is eager to gather his team for the first time Monday at Halas Hall. As a new coach, the window officially opens this week for Eberflus to begin leading his players. And the 51-year-old coach has given plenty of thought to his introductory address.

“I’m ready to go,” he said last week at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. “Been ready for three weeks.”

The Bears have 57 players on their roster with the draft a little more than three weeks away. There’s plenty of roster building and heavy lifting still ahead for Eberflus and his staff. The beginning of the offseason program offers a start.

Strength and conditioning will take precedence in the first phase. The team will get on the field for a voluntary new coach minicamp April 19-21 before transitioning to organized team activities and mandatory minicamp in May and June.

As the Bears’ latest reset continues, here’s the inside scoop on three notable storylines.

‘Learning all the time’

George McCaskey’s early progress report on the new regime he hired in January was as predictable as it was glowing. Offering an initial overview of how general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus have performed so far, McCaskey delivered the kind of March measurement you’d expect in the earliest stages of a massive reconstruction project.

So far, so good, the Bears chairman asserted.

“I’m very impressed with how both Ryan and Matt have hit the ground running, getting us off to a good start in 2022,” McCaskey said at the owners meetings. “I’m especially impressed with Ryan’s demeanor. Very self-possessed, very confident. Patient. Disciplined.”

Asked to set the bar for Year 1, McCaskey first went back to the old “The goal every year is to win the Super Bowl” axiom before rapidly pivoting to a much more realistic target.

“What we’re looking for is progress,” he said. “How are they putting the team together? How are they working together? Are we moving forward? Are we doing the right things? Are we doing them in the right way?”

For the first time since becoming Bears chairman in 2011, McCaskey will have full authority in evaluating those results and interpreting what they mean. That’s the responsibility built into the new role he agreed to three months ago when team President and CEO Ted Phillips pushed to distance himself from football operations to better focus on the Bears’ ongoing stadium efforts.

That leaves McCaskey as Poles’ direct supervisor, the point person to oversee the growth and development of the 36-year-old first-time general manager and to — in an ideal world anyway — offer valuable direction and guidance when appropriate.

That dynamic, with such weighty duties now in McCaskey’s hands, has created a justifiable level of angst within a Bears fan base that believes the team’s 30-plus-year stretch of mediocrity is directly attributed to the lack of vision and football intellect and, perhaps most important, evaluation at the very top of the organization.

McCaskey did little to quell such concern in January when, in discussing his new responsibilities as the direct contact for the GM, he essentially acknowledged he would have to lean on his new GM for help in understanding how to oversee a GM.

“I’ve got a lot to learn in that regard,” McCaskey said. “And I am counting on the new general manager to help me along in that process.”

That admission came in the same news conference during which McCaskey — in response to a question regarding his evaluation of quarterback Justin Fields — dropped this self-damning, made-for-talk-radio confession: “I’m just a fan. I’m not a football evaluator.”

And that, of course, came within the same news conference during which McCaskey again rejected the suggestion the team hire a president of football operations to help with its evaluation blind spots.

All of that provides context for the latest worrisome McCaskey disclosure, the one he dropped last week when asked how he’s handling Poles’ requests for patience despite McCaskey’s own professed zeal for immediate results.

“If you ask a fan, ‘Should we go for it on fourth down?’ they’re going to say yes every time,” McCaskey said. “But you have to balance your reactions emotionally and as a fan with what is necessary to be done from a football perspective and as an executive of the team.

“Striking that balance is important. And Ryan has been very patient with me as I’m adjusting to him and learning my new role.”

McCaskey’s learning curve figures to be steep.

“I’m learning,” he said again. “Ted’s been a good teacher. And Ryan has been a patient recipient — I guess (that) is the best way to put it. So far it’s gone very well.”

If you find yourself using both hands to massage your temples, you’re not alone. Around the league, there’s lingering amazement — though little surprise — that the Bears remain in a position where the leader of the organization’s highest rung is acknowledging a significant lack of experience and knowledge in his job.

The Bears hired Ryan Pace as their GM in 2015 with a hope that the then-37-year-old first-time general manager could learn on the fly and grow into a front-office star, leaning on his strengths as a talent evaluator and communicator. Yet no one in the organization has ever publicly acknowledged that with Pace reporting to Phillips and McCaskey, the Bears never created the proper infrastructure to aid or accelerate Pace’s growth — or steer him away from major missteps that set the franchise back.

Under Pace’s direction for seven years, the Bears were 17 games below .500 in the regular season, had only one winning season and never won a playoff game.

Even after a pair of ugly and frustrating 8-8 seasons in 2019 and 2020 that showed most that the Bears had entered a worrisome regression stage, McCaskey and Phillips said their intuition and gut told them to stay the course with Pace and coach Matt Nagy for 2021.

“Have mistakes been made? Yes,” McCaskey said after the 2020 season. “But I think both Ryan and Matt are learning and growing in their roles.”

Added Phillips: “The path to winning is rarely linear. And we feel the strong ability of Ryan and Matt to work together to build a shared vision for success is the fastest way toward building a consistently winning organization.”

The Pace-Nagy leadership duo was given the trust to draft Fields last April, then suffered through a 6-11 season that cost both their jobs.

So, yes, Chicago has experienced enough to cringe when Phillips and McCaskey prop up Poles and Eberflus as detail-oriented, hard-working leaders and terrific communicators who work well with one another.

To be fair, the mistakes Pace and Nagy made should not be baggage for Poles and Eberflus. But already, with a legion of outside critics skewering Poles for not doing more to patch the massive roster holes left for him, it has been difficult to separate the Bears’ tortured past from the promising future the new leaders are attempting to sell.

McCaskey said last week he was refreshed by Poles’ candor during his initial interview in January and impressed with the honesty Poles offered about the Bears’ deteriorating roster.

“Ryan’s assessment was blunt,” McCaskey said, “and his plan to fix it made sense to us.”

That plan prioritizes long-term vision over tempting quick-fix options, a slow-and-steady repair strategy. Which is why, for the most part, the Bears stayed away from a shopping spree during free agency in March. That was by design. And Poles’ discipline in sticking to that plan left an impression on his boss.

“That’s where I come back to his quality of being self-possessed,” McCaskey said. “There’s something about him. It’s really difficult for me to put my finger on. But he’s very confident and exudes that and I think the other people on the staff pick up on it.”

McCaskey was reminded that at the last in-person owners meetings in March 2019, the Bears were on top of the world. Nagy was the NFL Coach of the Year. Pace was honored as the Sporting News Executive of the Year. The Bears were the reigning NFC North champions with the league’s most opportunistic defense.

Heading into the NFL’s 100th season, the Bears believed a window had opened to make a run at pursuing championships annually. The Lombardi Trophy seemed within reach.

Instead, a depressing three-season slide followed. That necessitated another organizational reboot in January.

“We thought we were on our way,” McCaskey said last week. “It didn’t turn out that way. But we think with the changes we’ve made, we’ll be back there.”

McCaskey was pressed to explain how he could have such belief when his instincts in the past were so off.

“Well,” he said, “one thing you find out in this business is that it’s best not to get too high or too low. The best approach — and it’s especially difficult for me — is to try to have more of an even keel.”

After the 2022 season and again after 2023, McCaskey will be, as he stated himself, “looking forward to seeing the results.” But he also will have to interpret those results in a way that creates a direction for the franchise. And that likely will require an advanced level of football knowledge and a high-powered microscope.

So did McCaskey learn things during the Bears’ decline in 2019, 2020 and 2021 that can help him be a valuable resource for Poles and a truly informed evaluator for the GM’s journey?

“Oh, I hope so,” McCaskey said. “Yeah. Hopefully we’re all learning all the time.”

As usual, he was high on hope but reluctant to offer specifics.

Trust tree

During his first season as an NFL head coach last year, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Brandon Staley came to cherish his Friday afternoons.

Staley carved out a pocket to meet with quarterback Justin Herbert. They would discuss the game plan in detail, hash through the week’s high points and hiccups and connect personally in a way that strengthened their bond.

“One of my favorite parts of the NFL week,” Staley said last week. “We’d be the last two in the building and sharing that calm before the storm. When you become personal with your quarterback, when you really know each other and you develop that trust with each other, you’re able to take everything farther.”

Herbert was a second-year quarterback with skyrocketing potential. Staley was a first-time head coach with a defensive background making sure he remained involved with the development of the most important player on his roster.

Sure, Staley entrusted offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Shane Day to handle a bulk of the responsibility in grooming Herbert. Lombardi and Day led offensive meetings and oversaw Herbert’s fundamentals.

But even as Staley got his feet on the ground as a head coach while keeping a pulse on his entire team, he knew he had to be engaged with Herbert, balancing a hands-on approach with giving his assistants trust and autonomy to do their thing.

“The quarterback is the most important part of your team,” Staley said. “So I loved teaming up with our offensive staff. I loved teaming up with Justin. His relationship means a lot to me.”

Bears coach Matt Eberflus will be in a similar situation this season as a first-time head coach coming from a defensive background. Like Staley in 2021, Eberflus also inherits a promising second-year quarterback named Justin, whose development might be the biggest factor in whether the team’s latest reset efforts succeed.

Eberflus spoke in general terms at the owners meetings when asked to identify the most important boxes on Justin Fields’ checklist for 2022.

“The development of him for the second year should be a big jump,” Eberflus said. “That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for better technique, better fundamentals, better decision-making, better timing — everything. He’s all on board with that.”

Eberflus has stressed the importance of the next nine weeks for stimulating meaningful growth in his players.

“I went and sat for 45 minutes to an hour with each (assistant) coach and talked to them about what’s the plan for each guy,” he said. “Because that’s what matters. You develop the players this time of year. Where’s this guy at in his skill set and where does he need to be in nine weeks?”

Eberflus was asked if, as a defensive coach, he had reached out to other coaches or anyone in his inner circle for guidance on how to supervise the growth of a quarterback.

“I really haven’t reached out to other guys about that,” he said, noting his back-and-forth has come almost exclusively with Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. “It’s been us three talking about (Fields’) development. Those guys have great experiences. I have great experiences with defending quarterbacks. We’re just going to work it that way.”

If Eberflus is interested, perhaps Staley’s experience could prove valuable. With Herbert coming off a stellar rookie season in 2020 in which he threw for 4,336 yards and 31 touchdowns, the Chargers worked hard to push his growth forward in Year 2.

Herbert threw for 5,014 yards and 38 touchdowns last season. He was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 9 after completing 32 of 38 passes for 358 yards and two touchdowns in a road win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

In December, Herbert grabbed that honor again in back-to-back weeks, sparking blowout victories over the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants with a combined 592 passing yards and six touchdowns. He finished second in the league in passing yards, third in TD passes and 11th in passer rating (97.7) and was named to the Pro Bowl.

“Last year,” Staley said, “that was the No. 1 question I was asked: What are you going to do for this young quarterback? And my answer was that you really have to build a complete team around the guy. And a big part of the process is making sure that offensively and structurally, things are in place.”

Last offseason, the Chargers signed center Corey Linsley and guard Matt Feiler in free agency before using their first-round pick (No. 13) on left tackle Rashawn Slater of Northwestern, who was named second-team All-Pro as a rookie.

That refurbishment of the offensive line aided Herbert. So did the opportunity to work with playmakers such as running back Austin Ekeler, wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and tight end Jared Cook.

“Structurally, that gave Justin what he needs,” Staley said. “Then it’s about surrounding him with a coaching staff that can really maximize his gifts and create an offense for him. It’s not just a system that you’ve run before. But they created something tailored to (Herbert).”

Staley also had conviction that his defense could challenge Herbert in practice, helping him to better understand what he was seeing before the snap and as a play evolved.

Staley pointed out that the Chargers’ three-game winning streak early in the season — during which they averaged 35 points and 380 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns — helped build confidence and establish trust.

Heading into Year 3, there’s a belief in Los Angeles that Herbert not only is aboard a rocket ship destined for stardom but that the rocket already has launched.

“The plus for us,” Staley said, “is that when you have a guy like him who works as hard as he does and who has all the right stuff as a competitor, you can really get that going quickly. And Justin has shown everybody else how special he is.”

The Bears hope Fields can experience similar breakthroughs soon, forging a bond with his new coaches to bring out his best in 2022.

‘One of the greatest’

Denver Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett lit up last week at the mention of Luke Getsy.

“Oh, man!” Hackett said. “Chicago got one of the greatest of all time!”

Hackett was headed to breakfast at The Breakers Palm Beach, having just completed a 30-minute interview session at the owners meetings. But he welcomed an opportunity to offer insight on Getsy.

“Amazing person, first and foremost,” he said. “Bright, driven, terrific coach.”

Hackett is a fireball of enthusiasm and energy. And naturally he is biased when talking about Getsy, the new Bears offensive coordinator with whom he worked the last three seasons with the Green Bay Packers.

But Hackett stressed that his endorsement wasn’t just an obligatory commendation of a former colleague. It was rooted in the experience of the Packers — with Matt LaFleur as head coach, Hackett as offensive coordinator and Getsy as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator — reinventing their offense and bringing out the best in their two best players, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams.

With Rodgers winning league MVP honors in 2020 and 2021 and Adams exploding for 321 catches, 3,924 yards and 34 touchdowns over the last three seasons, the Packers won 39 regular-season games and three NFC North titles while reaching the NFC championship game twice.

There are lessons within that experience that should help Getsy in his transition to a heightened role in Chicago, even as he looks to mold an offense with far less elite talent. As much as anything, Hackett said, Getsy’s aptitude and coaching style should immediately help the Bears.

“We went through so many ups and downs,” Hackett said. “And we had a lot of ups in Green Bay the last three years, don’t get me wrong. But just the process of learning a system and how we then had to take a system and adjust it to Matt’s (vision), add in some of my stuff, put in Aaron’s preferences … Luke was such an incredible communicator. His understanding of the game was obvious.”

Getsy inherits a much less potent offense in Chicago with a far more inexperienced quarterback in Justin Fields. The Bears were abysmal on offense last season, averaging 307.4 yards and 18.3 points. Their 16 passing touchdowns ranked 29th in the league. For comparison’s sake, Rodgers threw his 16th touchdown pass in the third quarter of Week 8.

The task of getting Fields up and running at a high level will take time and incredible effort. But Getsy hopes he can begin to turn the cubelets of that Rubik’s cube as soon as he gains a better understanding of Fields’ strengths and weaknesses while also learning the skill sets of the players around the young quarterback.

To that end, Hackett stressed that Getsy’s talents in working with receivers should not go unrecognized while so much focus is on the new coordinator’s work with Fields.

Getsy started in Green Bay in 2014 as a quality control coach the same year Adams was drafted. He was the Packers receivers coach in 2016 and 2017. And while it would be a stretch to give him too much credit for Adams’ ascent from a second-round pick into arguably the top receiver in the game, Getsy’s involvement in that process was notable.

“Luke’s fingerprints are on that — 100%,” Hackett said. “When it comes to Getsy’s detailed knowledge of both wide receivers and quarterbacks, he has that intricate, detailed fundamentals and technique approach. We’re talking about every little step. And it’s amazing because when you look at Davante’s growth as a player early on, that’s when Luke was growing too. I think those guys taught each other a lot of stuff.

“There was a combined effort, a collaboration between those two. … You look now at the way Getsy coaches and that’s exactly the way ‘Te plays. When they talk about releases, about the nuances of route running, it’s like they have their own language and it’s always connected.”

Around the league, Getsy draws the most raves for that ability to connect.

“He’s a natural people person,” Hackett said. “And it’s because he genuinely cares. I love that. That’s my style too. I’ve watched him grow in this profession and so much of it is sparked by how much he cares. How much he cares about the players. How much he cares about the coaches around him. You feel that.

“So many people think this is just a business and you just go out there and operate. But as coaches and players, you go through a lot together. And when you have that relationship piece solidified, now you have a real chance to do the great things.”

Bears coach Matt Eberflus has expressed his admiration for Getsy’s ability to be innovative. The creativity piece with a high-level offense should not be overlooked.

“Luke is great with that,” Hackett said. “We always talked that imagination is the only thing that limits us. So for the past three years, we were always searching and constantly trying to find unique, fun things to take us forward — from motions to shifts to new concepts. That’s naturally the way things ran.

“But then you have to develop a teaching style that resonates. And Luke has that. I’m excited to see what he does with this next opportunity.”

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