CHICAGO – Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian said the Chicago Bears are somewhere “in between” a rebuild and a retool after the team went 6-11 this season.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Polian told the Waddle & Silvy show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. “Is it going to take five years? I don’t think so. Not with this regime. We’ll be competitive sooner than later, but it's going to take some time.”

Polian, 79, was hired out of retirement by the Bears to lead their search for a new general manager and head coach after Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy were let go last month. Polian settled on Kansas City Chiefs executive Ryan Poles for the GM job. Poles subsequently hired Indianapolis defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus to replace Nagy.

As the search began, Polian was asked by Bears ownership to assess the team’s roster.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “The general consensus is that the Bears have 6-9 blue-chippers on this team. That’s not enough. You need 10-12 to be in the hunt. Ryan has a task in front of him to add those kinds of players. There is no question about that. That means it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Polian’s 32-year NFL career included helping build the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts into elite teams. He’s experienced in helping teams improve.

The Bears are hoping quarterback Justin Fields, drafted 11th overall last year, will be the on-field leader of that transition.

“What he needs to do is to learn his craft, to learn what the pro game is all about,” Polian said. “He didn’t have a chance to do that last year. He was thrust into a complex offense that he had no experience with; under center where he had no experience at Ohio State. He wasn’t ready to play and it showed. But there is a lot to work with there.”

The Bears performed an exhaustive search for their new GM and head coach, landing on Poles after interviewing 13 candidates. Polian was asked if he knew immediately Poles was the right choice.

“I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight because there was a lot of ground to cover, but by the end of the interview, I was convinced,” Polian said. “He’s very forthright. There’s not a lot of fluff there. There’s a lot of substance.”

Polian said Eberflus “checked every box,” including the accountability one.

“The bottom line is how he approached discipline,” Polian explained. “You’re going to do it the right way or there will be consequences.”

The new men in charge will be judged to a large part on how improved the offense is in Fields’ second season. The Bears averaged 18 points in 2021, ranking 27th in the league.

“You look at what Justin has going for him, which is a remarkable arm, great mobility, good size (6-3, 228), good ability to run the ball,” Polian said. “Highly combative (competitive) guy.

“Also, Justin has a lot of work to do to develop into a first-rate NFL QB. It takes four years for a rookie QB to come in and learn the job and be able to compete at the highest level in the NFL. That’s just a fact. It took Peyton Manning four years, and he had more tools to work with than most people.”