After a week of wheeling and dealing, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles continues to stay on course with his vision for the roster.
When the Chicago Bears hired Ryan Poles to be the new general manager they empowered him to do whatever it took to bring the team back to relevance.
With the Kansas City Chiefs, Poles moved up the ladder and was instrumental in the franchise’s recent success. In Chicago, he wants to build like Kansas City did — pick young, athletic players through the draft first, then find more of them in free agency.
Since he started his job in Chicago, Poles has been on one track — acquiring draft picks and clearing cap space. He got rid of bloated contracts and key, popular players. He replaced them with low-cost young players.
The fans were not so happy when this happened. With previous general managers in the past three decades, they picked up some big-name players while neglecting other areas of the team. For example, Ryan Pace went big and acquired Khalil Mack but sacrificed the future with a boatload of draft picks. It would have been a great deal if the Bears were, say, a player or two away from being real contenders. They weren’t, however, and aside from a big season in 2018, the Bears failed to make any noise.
Despite the negative reactions from the fanbase, Poles continues to stay on track with his vision. In the week leading up to the November 1 trade deadline, he continued what he started in the offseason. He traded defensive end Robert Quinn for a fourth-round draft pick. Quinn is on the back end of his career. Despite having a record-breaking year last season, he wasn’t a part of the rebuild. He picked up a draft pick and sent Quinn to the Philadelphia Eagles, owners of the best record in the NFL.
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Later, Poles traded linebacker Roquan Smith to another playoff contender, the Baltimore Ravens. In return, he received a second and fifth-round pick. Smith is one of the top linebackers in the NFL but offseason contract talks did not work and Smith took the difficulties personally. He did not want to stay in Chicago so Poles finally relented and found a trade partner.
Poles did not stop there, though. He used one of his two second-round picks to acquire wide receiver Chase Claypool. Claypool is exactly the type of player Poles looks for — young and athletic.
Now the Chicago Bears have big holes in talent throughout the roster. Many fans are very disappointed. However, this aligns with Poles’ philosophy. He is acquiring young talent who could help the Bears win once again.
Now Poles has eight draft picks for 2023. From what we saw from him in this year’s draft that he could wheel and deal again to acquire more picks. He came into the draft with five draft picks and finished the draft with 11 of them. He could pull off what the New England Patriots do and pull off a lot of draft-day deals.
In addition, Poles has the Chicago Bears on top with the highest salary cap space in the league. Chicago has over $120 million in cap space, a number likely to rise before the new free agency period begins.
Ryan Poles has a vision for how to get the Chicago Bears back on top. It might not look very pretty right now but hopefully, it turns out well in the end. He is going in a different direction from other general managers. Unlike the others, he is utilizing great discipline by sticking to his vision. Let’s see if he succeeds where the others failed.