Who will new Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles hire to be the head coach? And what else is ahead as he goes to work in his new role?

Ryan Poles got right to work Wednesday on his first full day as the Chicago Bears general manager. A video posted on the team’s official Twitter account captured Poles parking at Halas Hall before sunrise, grabbing a backpack and a few other personal belongings from the back seat, then walking through the extreme chill toward the entrance of team headquarters.

“Good morning, Bears fans,” he said. “Let’s go to work.”

And to work Poles went. His itinerary included head coaching interviews with Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. Tack that on to the in-person interview Poles conducted with Jim Caldwell on Tuesday night and it has become clear the Bears are quickly moving toward a second big hire.

But who will be Poles’ favorite for the head coaching role? And how extensive will his involvement in that part of the team’s search really go? Tribune Bears writers Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane walk through a number of important developments as the search party continues.

Dan Wiederer: The early feedback on the hiring of Poles has been overwhelmingly positive. But that’s to be expected. It’s rare in the NFL for a major hire to be made, particularly in the general manager realm, and play to a chorus of jeers or ridicule. Top candidates for these jobs are typically sharp, driven and hard-working. So it has been little surprise to hear glowing adjectives attached to Poles’ profile.

As Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid noted Wednesday, “He’s smart. He knows football. He knows players. He works hard and he’s organized.”

Now it’s a matter of what Poles, a 36-year-old first-time GM, does with this golden opportunity. This is about setting a vision, assembling a support staff, making significant changes across the organization and creating plans to build a contender. The first order of business, of course, is identifying the next head coach for the Chicago Bears. And even as Poles went through interviews with Caldwell, Quinn and Eberflus — three candidates who had preliminary meetings with the team before he was hired — it was worth wondering whether Poles’ list might extend beyond those three names.

Has Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll been removed from the Bears’ coaching big board? If so, why? What about former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, a college teammate of Poles’ at Boston College? Any other buzz on guys like Byron Leftwich or Leslie Frazier?

At the conclusion of this process, it will be important to hear from Poles on what his desires were for the coaching search, how much authority he had in assembling the list of finalists and how he went through his vetting process with what figures to be a very condensed timeline between his hiring and the decision on a new coach.

Colleen Kane: To your first point about early rave reviews, Dan, many GM candidates gain notice because they are a part of successful organizations or they have mentors who appreciate and champion their work and leadership as they climb the ranks. So it’s natural to hear descriptions like this one from Chiefs GM Brett Veach, who said via a statement that the Bears are getting “a hard-working, meticulous and personable leader who has a vision for how to build a winning team on the field and establish a winning culture off of it.”

Poles obviously was able to articulate his vision well enough to be a finalist in three GM searches this year with the Bears, New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings — though the Bears hired him before the Vikings could get in their second interview.

Now, as you mentioned, he must start with finding a coach who fits and shares that vision.

I find it interesting that two of the coaches on the interview list for Poles’ first two days are some of the most experienced in this hiring cycle — Caldwell, who was a head coach for seven years with the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions, and Quinn, who was the Atlanta Falcons head coach for more than five seasons.

That, of course, feels like a repeat of the Ryan Pace/John Fox, young GM/experienced coach idea that the Bears went with in 2015.

Just because it didn’t work the first time doesn’t mean it can’t work this time. Caldwell and Quinn are both well-respected coaches. But I’m eager to see if Poles adds a few more names to the second-interview slate to make sure he’s zeroing in on the right match.

Wiederer: It’s zeroing in on the right match. And making sure not to cut corners, right? At the outset of this, on Black Monday 2½ weeks ago, Bears Chairman George McCaskey promised the organization would be “thorough, diligent and exhaustive” as they searched for their new GM and coach. And the Bears certainly cast a wide net in the first phase of their searches, interviewing more than a dozen prospective GMs and 10 coaching candidates. But as the old saying goes, don’t mistake activity for achievement either.

You’d hate for the team to put in so much work on the front end of this process only to shortchange itself at the end. That’s why it’s paramount that Poles be given the freedom — and really some push too — to talk to as many coaching candidates as he is interested in. This is not the time for the organization to start rushing just to get things done. And it’s OK to point out that in some league circles, there continues to be skepticism as to whether the Bears truly know how to complete this process skillfully.

Multiple league sources raised questions Wednesday as to whether the Bears truly could claim to have conducted an exhaustive search after they only brought one GM candidate (Poles) to Lake Forest for a second interview, then followed by cramming three — and perhaps only three? — coaching interviews into the 24 hours after Poles finalized his contract.

Yes, the Bears, with conviction that Poles was a perfect fit, had to act quickly under real-time pressure to hire him with the Vikings also in pursuit. But what if fellow GM finalists Eliot Wolf or Monti Ossenfort also had been given a chance to come to Lake Forest and had an opportunity to deliver presentations that could have knocked the search committee’s socks off? Wasn’t there, presumably, more that could have been gleaned about those two candidates that wasn’t learned over Zoom? And aren’t similar questions fair to ask about the home stretch of the coaching search?

Kane: Agreed, those are all fair questions. At the same time, if the Bears were certain Poles was their guy, not letting him go to Minnesota might have been a smart move.

Don’t forget McCaskey just a few weeks ago talked about how Bill Polian knew Tony Dungy was his guy with the Colts within 12 minutes of starting the interview. Maybe they just couldn’t let Poles get away. It’s the type of scenario that could become legend if Poles is successful — or be picked apart if he’s not.

As for Poles’ upcoming decision, he presumably already had an idea of what type of coach pairing might work for him and reportedly already had been in contact with several of the aforementioned candidates before being hired.

So perhaps he will be able to move quickly, though like you I will want to hear his answer if he decides some of the hot offensive-minded candidates such as Daboll or Leftwich aren’t what he’s looking for to guide a team with quarterback Justin Fields going into his second season.

After that’s all settled and explained, Poles must dive into building a staff and preparing for the draft as the chief decision-maker for the first time. What a few months he has ahead.

Wiederer: For sure. I’ve been emphasizing it for weeks. The headlines might get smaller and the chatter on sports talk radio will likely decrease once the new coach is hired. But Poles and his new coach will face a demanding few weeks as they try to assemble a front office and a coaching staff filled with highly qualified colleagues. Poles will have to set a vision for how he wants his college scouting department to work, how he hopes his pro personnel division operates, how he wants to delineate responsibilities across the front office. The new coach, meanwhile, will have to start with hiring coordinators and then position coaches.

As a first-time GM, Poles will be working under the oversight of McCaskey, who acknowledged this month that he has never supervised a GM before.

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

But who will be there to help Poles? Who can help him identify some of his blind spots? Who can assist him in putting out fires? Who can he use as a sounding board to work through some of the landmark decisions he’ll have to make in his prominent role?

This is a complex challenge inside a cutthroat industry.

Kane: Absolutely. This 36-year-old who has worked for one NFL team his whole career is coming into a tough market with a fan base that is weary from years of management missteps. It won’t be easy to step into.

It could help that he worked with three general managers and three head coaches with the Chiefs to understand different ways of operating. It could help that he has assisted in building a team that has had nine playoff berths in his tenure in Kansas City. It could help that he first laid out his vision for an NFL team — the Carolina Panthers — in a GM interview a year ago and has had the time between to build upon those ideas.

But he’s going to need support along the way, and who he’s able to bring onto his staff will be important.

Wednesday likely won’t be the last time he’s at Halas Hall before dawn in the weeks ahead as he figures it out.

Wiederer: Early mornings. Late nights. That’s all part of this. It’s a big-boy job in a major market. And I am certain Poles is eager to meet the moment and take on the challenge.

Listen, I love that Poles comes from an organization that has established itself as a perennial contender and has a formula for sustaining success. The Chiefs haven’t missed the playoffs since 2014. They are playing in their fourth consecutive conference championship game Sunday. They are on the doorstep of going to their third straight Super Bowl.

Poles was there behind the scenes in 2017 to witness how the organization targeted Patrick Mahomes in the draft and then developed him into a surefire Hall of Famer. All of that should only help him as he establishes a vision for the Bears — and by extension, put together a plan for Fields.

I also love some of the philosophies Poles has articulated about being aggressive in the GM role and always understanding the value of anticipation. Still, you and I both know all of this is a “We’ll see” scenario. Which creates inevitable awkwardness in a world that craves instant verdicts.

That’s why I chuckle and shrug when people laud a move like this as a “home run hire” or insist the Bears’ search process was impeccable.

The only logical response? “We’ll see.”

Maybe Poles becomes the GM who changes everything, turning the Bears into a team that regularly goes to the playoffs and wins consistently once there. Or maybe he’s just Ryan Pace 2.0 — charismatic, organized, hard-working and unselfish but ultimately unable to clear the league’s higher hurdles.

We’ll see, right?

Kane: Years from now, we’ll see.