Silvy: Who is in charge of hiring the Bears next head coach?

Who’s in charge? What’s the plan to hire the next head coach? I don’t know where the next stadium is going to be built.

It’s the Bears' version of Abbott and Costello “who’s on first routine,” and I’m as confused as ever.

Perhaps there was nothing that could make me feel better, but I was still all ears.

After an embarrassing Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the midst of the most disappointing Bears season of my lifetime, I wanted to hear something that would give me hope from the Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles press conference.

These two men fumbled the season away after allowing Matt Eberflus to return for year three and patchwork his staff together with Shane Waldron in place to develop Caleb Williams. These two men sat back and did nothing after the Bears quit on their head coach after the Arizona and New England games and patch-worked again by firing Waldron. Then they were called for a delay of game by the NFL world allowing Eberflus to meet the media last Friday and firing him two hours later.

How can I expect you to hire the right guy, win Super Bowls and build a multibillion dollar stadium if you can’t even fire the most fireable coach in Bears history the right way?

But this isn’t about looking back, this is about moving forward.

And my question moving forward is who is in charge of hiring the next Bears head coach?

George McCaskey always has argued with the notion that the Bears need a president of football operations. He claims their top level of football ops is their GM and acts in the same way. Ryan Poles is in that position but sounded far from a man in charge when he sat next to Warren. Poles acted anywhere from defeated, to disengaged, to stripped of his powers. Warren made it known that he would be heavily involved in the search, and it wasn’t exactly clear who has final say in hiring a coach.

And as I’ve noted here before, this is why the Bears constantly get it wrong. There’s talk again that Poles wanted to fire Ebeflus sooner but was forced to keep him by “ownership”. When Ryan Pace was a rookie GM, he was instructed to hire John Fox by ownership. If you claim your football leader is the general manager, but then don’t allow him to generally manage, you can’t wonder why you constantly lose and look for new coaches.

While I’ve always liked the Warren hire and asked for the Bears to move on from Ted Phillips, it’s time for Warren to back up all of his promises with action. The Bears continue to wander the stadium desert despite empty words of optimism, no closer to a real solution. And last year, Warren compared Matt Eberflus to Dick Vermeil. Vermeil remains in the Hall of Fame while Eberflus is out of a job.

The Bears have an obvious stadium site in Arlington Heights where they own land, but Warren insists on going against the grain. Will he inject that same thought process if there’s an obvious coaching fit?

Warren also ran the same Bears coaching vacancy playbook discussing tradition and being the most coveted destination for a coach. Since George McCaskey has taken over as chairman, the Bears have had five head coaches, six counting Thomas Brown, seven counting the new hire. In that same span, the Bears have won zero playoff games. The Bears won in the 1930s and 40s when there were 11 NFL teams and before football became big business. Since the start of the Super Bowl era, the Bears have a 430-477-4 (.474) regular season record. That win percentage ranks 20th of the 32 current franchises in that span, according to ESPN stats and info.

The Bears' modern tradition is losing.

So please excuse me for being skeptical if I don’t believe all the candidates are running to Halas Hall based on Caleb Williams and cap room. Real changes from the top are what matter.

It’s time for the Bears to put their money where their mouth is. No cutting corners with the process or with expenses. No flying finalists in economy rather than first class like 31 other teams would do. Paying for a head coach and their staff is the ultimate cheat code. Not a dollar goes against the salary cap. The Bears play in the largest market in America with a single NFL team, act like it.

I do not want to hear that $15-$20 million dollars is too much for the top coach. I don’t want to hear that they’re still paying Matt Eberflus.

You know what else the Bears are spending that money on?

• Nate Davis $11 million

• Gerald Everett $5.5 million

• Ryan Bates $4 million

That’s more than $20 million on three players. Davis has been cut. Everett has seven total catches. Bates has started one game.

Think a top head coach can be more impactful than those three?

The head coach touches every player on the roster and virtually every person in the building. Do not go cheap.

As a younger Bears fan, I bragged about the team as the charter franchise and Chicago being home to greatest sports fans in the world only to watch my favorite football team come up empty. Yes, the Bears can change the tenor of the conversation by finally getting this right. Show us by your actions.

No more empty promises. The fans deserve better.

And those 53 outraged players in that locker room in Detroit deserve better.

• Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the “Waddle & Silvy” show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.