Chicago Bears: Super Bowl Shows Ryan Poles' Philosophy is on Target

After watching the Super Bowl, it is clear that Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is on the right path by prioritizing the offensive line this offseason.

The 2021 season is now in the books. All games have been played and the league crowned the Los Angeles Rams as the new champions. Now that the Super Bowl is over, the attention for the Chicago Bears and the rest of the teams in the NFL turns to improving their rosters.

New general manager Ryan Poles has a big job ahead of him. The Bears have over 30 players who hit free agency. In addition, they have another handful of players eligible for buyouts, thus making them free agents as well.

Despite the daunting task ahead of him, Poles has a chance to make a great first impression. He has a chance to overhaul over 70 percent of the roster. If he chooses right, he has a chance to have a strong first season. Additionally, the Bears play a third-place schedule, meaning that they’ll have a much easier schedule in 2022 than they had in 2021. We saw how that worked out with Matt Nagy when he coached his first season with Chicago.

This is why it is very crucial that Poles and new head coach Matt Eberflus need to be on the same page. They both need to be on the same page so they build a roster that has consistent success. Former general manager Ryan Pace and Nagy did not do that. Their success in 2018 was the only successful season they had. As a result, they are gone.

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There is one unit Poles/Eberflus emphasize over all others

When Poles met the press in his introduction as the new general manager, he emphasized one thing over everything else — strengthening the offensive line. He was a former offensive lineman himself. He knows he has a great asset in quarterback Justin Fields.

Fields is the face of the franchise and the team needs to do whatever it takes to make sure they put him in a winning situation. That did not happen with Pace and Nagy at the helm. Nagy had him woefully prepared and it showed. Also, the Bears didn’t have a good offensive line that could protect the young quarterback. He not only had to run plays that didn’t emphasize his skills but also had to run around for his life at times.

Those days have to end.

In his press conference, Poles mentioned how he wanted the offensive line to keep the quarterback clean, and to protect him.

It agitates me to see a quarterback get hit and be on the ground — and I watch the five guys and their body language. If I see my guy on the ground, I’m running over there, getting him up, making sure he’s clean, ready to go. I don’t know if I saw that enough in the tape that I watched, and that’s critical.

The Super Bowl showed that Poles is on the right track

We just saw how important an offensive line is to an offense. In the Super Bowl, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked a record-tying seven times. He hardly had time to do anything in the second half of the game.

After an amazing bomb for a touchdown Burrow wasn’t able to do much. He and the Bengals offense scored 10 quick points at the start of the second half to equal their scoring in the first half. However, they failed to score anything for the rest of the game. At the most critical part of the game for the Bengals, on fourth-and-one and their season on the line, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who had two sacks, almost got another one and pressured Burrow into throwing the ball away.

Stafford, meanwhile, had a clean pocket most of the game. He was able to go through his progressions and find his receivers.

Poles’ philosophy on the offensive line is right on target. If he does rebuild the offensive line well he’ll put Fields in a positive situation. If Eberflus and his offensive staff are able to fully utilize Fields’ abilities so he could do his thing, we’ll see plenty of things that will raise hope for fans of the Chicago Bears.