Chicago Bears hiring Ryan Poles is a good start, but more work to do
The Chicago Bears now have their new general manager in place, but what he does in hiring the head coach and player decisions will ultimately define his tenure.
The Chicago Bears announced Tuesday that they hired former Kansas City Assistant Director of Player Personnel Ryan Poles as their next general manager.
Ryan Poles has now accepted the job, source said. He’s the #Bears new GM. https://t.co/kMWsq2R0fb
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 25, 2022
Poles was chosen over several other candidates, including the Colts’ Morocco Brown and the Bills’ Joe Schoen, who ended up with the Giants. This now marks the third Bears general manager following the departure of Jerry Angelo, who ran the club from 2001-2011 and made two NFC championship games and appeared in Super Bowl XLI.
An interesting plot was how footage leaked of George McCaskey picking up Poles from Chicago O’Hare, which meant that there was the possibility that a deal would be done sooner than later, and Poles would likely avoid the Vikings. As it turns out, that was the case, and the Bears have new management.
Ryan Poles is a good start for the Chicago Bears, but there is more work to be done before any judgments can be made.
Like any hire, there are positives and negatives. However, in the case of Poles, there are far more positives than negatives. Poles was a former Bears UDFA back in 2008 but quickly transitioned into a scouting role and joined Kansas City in 2009 as a Player Personnel Assistant.
From there, he was worked in several positions under different regimes, including being a Director of College Scouting and Executive Director of Player Personnel. Poles has seen the struggles and the great times, including a Super Bowl Championship during the 2019-2020 season, Kansas City’s first in over 50 years.
Poles was responsible for helping the Chiefs draft some of their better players and finding talent in all rounds of the draft instead of just the lower group. In other words, he seems to know what he is doing.
However, it will come down to what he decides to do at the head coaching position. Will he find the right man, or will he have to choose from the Bill Polian list? It sounds like he will take charge and find his man for this team.
The deal is done now, and all Chicago can do is watch and hope that the eventual pairing of Poles and his head coach is the one that brings the Bears back to legitimate prominence.