Bears made huge strides via ‘impact draft’

Eberflus told reporters that at one point Friday he had Williams and Odunze and their families in his office at Halas Hall, a group of 12 in all.

“It was a great process to be able to sit there and visit with those guys,” Eberflus said. “I just took time to thank their parents because to have the quality of men you have in Caleb and Rome, that doesn’t just happen. You have to be raised that way. And I really wanted to thank their parents; they all were in there.

“And they make good teammates. You know why? Because they love football. To me, that’s what it’s all about. Are they talented? Sure, they’re talented, no question. But it’s going to be fun to watch those guys grow up together.”

Acquiring players that possess both an abundance of talent and character isn’t easy. But that’s exactly what Poles has done in rebuilding the Bears roster—and it’s what he’s most proud of.

“It’s really rare to have the skill level be improved so much, but the culture and the people be top notch as well,” Poles said. “To bring really good people and really talented players in, and for that to be the same, that’s really hard.

“These guys love being around each other, they love football. And that’s coming up through scouting, those are kind of the staples. You want to make sure guys are passionate about football, they’re good teammates and you lean into that. And you’ve got to have faith that when you put a bunch of those people together, they can be special. I’m just proud of the people that we’ve brought in on top of the talent as well.”

Speaking of talent, the Bears offense is seemingly more explosive than it’s ever been, with Williams and Odunze joining receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, tight ends Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett and running backs D’Andre Swift, Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson.

“It’s going to be tough to defend, starting with practice,” Eberflus said. “We’ve got to defend those guys in practice, which I think is going to be really good for our skillset on both sides of the ball. If you look at the receiving corps, they’re all different. The halfbacks are all different. The tight ends are different. They’re different skillsets. That’s a credit to Ryan to be able to bring those guys together, acquire those guys. I think it’s going to be very difficult to defend.”