Checking the boxes
New Bears GM Ryan Poles has a growing to-do list. Here are 4 of his top priorities.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles can’t pinpoint the exact moment he began thinking about running an NFL team. He just knows that somewhere along the line during his 13 seasons climbing the ladder with the Kansas City Chiefs, he became fascinated with the process of building a team and instilling a desired culture.
When Poles first started as a player personnel assistant in 2009, the Chiefs were wayward shifting into a new era under general manager Scott Pioli and coach Todd Haley. The Chiefs had lost 26 games in the two seasons before Poles’ arrival and, despite an AFC championship uptick in 2010, averaged 10 losses per year in Poles’ first four seasons with the franchise.
But as Poles took on heightened roles in the Chiefs’ college scouting ranks, he also watched and contributed as the organization built itself into an AFC powerhouse. In each of Poles’ final seven seasons, the Chiefs reached the playoffs. Over the last four years, they became a mainstay in the conference championship, advancing to two Super Bowls and winning it all in February 2020.
Experiencing that climb was exhilarating.
“That gets you excited,” Poles said, “because you’re like, ‘I can take some of these things (forward).’
“It’s not cookie cutter. I can’t just take that model and bring it here (to Chicago). But I can bring all the different pieces. That got me excited and gave me the confidence to know I can do this.”
Poles played well enough to be a high school All-American at Canandaigua Academy in New York and the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2002. He went on to become a starting guard at Boston College in front of quarterback Matt Ryan and eventually wound up in training camp with the Bears in the summer of 2008. (He didn’t make it to the 53-man roster.)
Asked Jan. 31 why, after his playing career came to an end, he chose to pursue a scouting and management path rather than exploring coaching, Poles said he followed his passion.
“It happened early,” he said. “The thought of building a roster just always resonated with me. It’s what I wanted to
do. I think it’s interesting to be able to change the culture of a team by bringing in people that reflect that.”
Now Poles has the biggest opportunity of his career. At 36 years old and in the general manager’s chair for the first time, he has the responsibility of refurbishing a Bears team that is coming off a 6-11 season. Eventually, he hopes to help break the organization’s frustrating drought without a playoff victory — now up to 11 seasons and counting.
Poles seems to understand this will be a heavy lift. And as he gets started at Halas Hall with the nuts-and-bolts work of evaluating and retooling the roster, here are four priorities that should be near the top of his list.
1. Reward linebacker Roquan Smith.
The first task of any new general manager is to identify his team’s blue-chip players, the stars who can be the biggest catalysts to a championship run. Through that lens, Smith has established himself as a standout playmaker and a respected leader who needs to be treated accordingly.
Last May, former Bears GM Ryan Pace exercised the fifth-year option on Smith’s rookie deal, a no-brainer decision that locked Smith in for the 2022 season with a fully guaranteed base salary of $9.375 million. But negotiating an extension should be a pressing matter for Poles and his front office.
At last check, Smith was still without an agent to oversee that back and forth. (Don’t forget, as a rookie in 2018, Smith was four weeks late reporting to training camp as his previous agency encouraged him to hold out, in part, over language technicalities that pertained to protecting his guaranteed money in the event that he were to draw a suspension for conduct related to his play.)
For the Bears that was a frustrating speed bump that slightly delayed Smith’s development and forced him to face a barrage of holdout-related questions when he finally arrived at training camp.
“That’s between my agent and Mr. Pace,” Smith said then.
Now the linebacker’s contract situation will be between him and Mr. Poles — and whomever it is in the front office that the new GM entrusts to handle negotiations.
Smith has played inside linebacker in the Bears 3-4 defense the last four seasons. In 2021, on his way to earning second-team All-Pro honors, he ranked fifth in the NFL with 163 tackles. As the Bears transition to a 4-3 system under new coach Matt Eberflus and defensive coordinator Alan William, Smith may be asked to move into the weakside linebacker role that Darius Leonard has flourished in with the Indianapolis Colts. But that transition shouldn’t be difficult. Nor should it affect the way Smith is valued by the new regime.
Leonard, for what it’s worth, signed a five-year, $99.25 million extension with the Colts last August, a deal that could certainly provide a frame of reference for Smith. The Bears, of course, will want to work their way through free agency next month, operating with a strained salary-cap situation and looking to reload and revise their roster. More than two dozen starters or key reserves have contracts that are set to expire March 16. Thus, Poles can’t view Smith’s future in a vacuum. But he does need to determine how to assess one of the Bears’ most valuable core pieces and accelerate talks on a possible extension before the regular season begins.
2. Restock at receiver.
Allen Robinson’s production falloff — from 102 catches, 1,250 yards and six touchdowns in 2020 to a stat line of 38-410-1 this season — was staggering and another undeniable symptom of just how constipated and broken Matt Nagy’s offense was. Robinson was playing the season under the franchise tag for $17.9 million but became an afterthought in many weeks. He also missed five contests because of injury or illness.
With the way everything unraveled, it seems a near certainty Robinson will walk away in free agency next month, looking to cash in elsewhere. But how much will last year’s statistical output suppress Robinson’s value on the open market?
Would he possibly be open to returning to the Bears now that there is a new GM and new coach in place? Perhaps. But Poles and Eberflus would also have to want Robinson back and be able to sign him to a teamfriendly deal given the number of other holes they are trying to patch.
(Also worth noting: both Poles and Eberflus emphasized Monday how much they want to build the Bears roster with speed and explosion.)
At present all signs point to Robinson’s exit, which basically leaves the Bears with only one proven receiver on the depth chart: Darnell Mooney.
Marquise Goodwin and Damiere Byrd, who combined for only 46 receptions, 642 yards and two touchdowns, will each see their one-year contracts expire next month. With no attachment to Poles, Eberflus or new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, it’s difficult to see the Bears going out of their way to prioritize the resigning of either veteran.
Jakeem Grant may be back as a return specialist and a gadget piece on offense. It will also be interesting to see how the new coaching staff evaluates Dazz Newsome, a sixth-round pick last spring.
It all adds intrigue to the Bears’ upcoming foray into free agency, where Poles is promising to be disciplined and calculated with an understanding that the Bears aren’t in a stage where being aggressive makes sense.
Green Bay Packers star Davante Adams could reset the market for elite receivers if and when he gets a new deal. (It’s still possible the Packers place him under the franchise tag.) Other top receivers who could hit the market next month include Chris Godwin, Mike Williams, Odell Beckham Jr., JuJu Smith-Schuster, Will Fuller and Michael Gallup. But the Bears are more likely to be shopping from a bargain rack that includes receivers such as Mack Hollins, Dede Westbrook, Laquon Treadwell, Ray-Ray McCloud and Jauan Jennings.
One way or another, the development of quarterback Justin Fields will revolve in part around how many weapons he has to work with. Six months from now, it will be fascinating to assess how Poles’ first attempts at resetting the receiving corps have gone.
3. Overhaul the offensive line.
There’s a sense in some circles that a complete evaluation of Fields’ potential can’t be done fairly until the Bears fully stabilize their offensive line. Poles nods at that assertion.
“Getting that line set is first and foremost,” he said. “And then it’s giving Justin more talent to work with. But without a lot of draft capital and without a lot of money, that’s going to take some strategy to get done.”
Poles was an offensive lineman himself. His new assistant general manager Ian Cunningham was also an interior offensive lineman in the ACC, starting 31 games at Virginia. In other words, the Bears should have proper focus on upgrading their line.
Poles acknowledged the Chiefs’ issues up front in a Super Bowl LV loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a wake-up call that prompted the organization to renovate their offensive line.
“We felt like we got embarrassed in the Super Bowl and we quickly sat down and said, ‘We can’t let that happen again,’ ” Poles said. “And then we went to work. We used free agency. We used trades. We used the draft. We used an emergency waiver wire (claim) to solidify our front. So here we’re going to use all different avenues to do that.”
It may take more than one offseason to complete an overhaul with the Bears. But it will be interesting to monitor how Poles goes about assembling an offensive line that best fits Getsy’s system.
Guard James Daniels could be headed for free agency next month, potentially commanding a new deal that exceeds the Bears’ price range. Tackles Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom, meanwhile, are both draft picks from the previous regime, meaning their standing as starters and/or long-term building blocks is still TBD.
Poles is in the process of setting a vision for what he wants his offensive line to look. But that vision may require some modification initially based on the restrictions the Bears will face in the upcoming player acquisition cycle.
4. Pick up picks.
Like most general managers, Poles has emphasized his intention to build the Bears through the draft. And, boy, coming off an 11-loss season, it sure would be nice to have the top-10 selection that usually comes along with such struggles. But the Bears under Pace, traded this year’s first-round selection to the New York Giants in their move up to draft quarterback Justin Fields. The Bears also sent the Giants a fourth-round selection as well. (That first-round pick from the Bears slots in at No. 7 for new Giants GM Joe Schoen.)
That leaves Poles to march to his first draft with only five selections. Poles was asked Monday about that limited capital and expressed a need to be solution-oriented and creative to accumulate additional picks.
“We have what we have,” he said, “and we’re going to do the absolute best to maximize those draft picks.”
The quickest ways to accumulate draft capital is via draft weekend trades, selectively moving back on the draft board at opportune moments while procuring more picks. Pace, for what it’s worth, moved down in the draft four times over seven years. But he also traded up nine times, sending away draft capital to land players he didn’t want to miss out on — a list that included Fields, Mitch Trubisky, Leonard Floyd, Eddie Jackson, Anthony Miller, David Montgomery, Darnell Mooney and Teven Jenkins.
Poles could look to rid the roster of veteran talent that doesn’t fit into his longterm plans. But often those kinds of trades come with a pennies-on-the-dollar return. Pace, for example, traded standout receiver Brandon Marshall to the New York Jets in 2015 for a fifth-round pick. Later that season, he shipped Jared Allen to the Carolina Panthers and Jon Bostic to the New England Patriots for a pair of sixth-round picks. In his second offseason in 2016, Pace traded tight end Martellus Bennett plus a sixth-round pick to the Patriots for a fourth-round selection.
It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Poles will host a similar kind of garage sale in the coming months.
“If there are opportunities to get more draft picks through trades of players or going up or down (in the draft), then that’s great,” Poles said. “But we have to take it one step at a time and know where the value is for this year. It might not make sense this year.”
The Bears would also be wise to get on the right side of the NFL’s compensatory formula, hoping Poles’ early action in free agency — or lack thereof — positions the team to collect additional draft capital in the years ahead.
The Bears received two sixth-round comp picks a year ago. In 2020, they were awarded a fourth-round compensatory pick, which they later traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for quarterback Nick Foles.
In some ways, the Bears new regime has some freedom to quickly reshape the roster.
“It’s exciting,” Poles said, “because you have an ability to create your core pretty fast. The challenge? When you don’t have a lot of draft picks, it’s hard to do that. So we’re going to have be strategic. It might be going to that second and third wave of free agency with shorter contracts to supplement the roster as we start to add more draft picks.”
Off he goes into a demanding offseason.