Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles needs to be honest about rebuild

With how Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is handling free agency, he has to come clean and admit there is a multiple-season rebuild.

The NFL’s free agency got here and a lot of teams went crazy. We had crazy cuts and crazier signings. We had some of the top quarterbacks and wide receivers change teams unexpectedly. Through it all, however, things from the Chicago Bears have been pretty silent.

If you are paying attention, though, general manager Ryan Poles has been very loud. He said heading into the new league year that he would not be too involved in the first wave of free agency. He felt that going after the second-tier players would yield more cost-effective deals.

Well, Poles certainly went hard after cost-effective deals. In fact, he actively sought out bargain-basement deals out of the scrap heap. He signed a bunch of low drafted or undrafted players and signed them to one or two-year deals. The Bears had about 60 percent of the team hit free agency. We could see more of the same next season.

I understand the need to be frivolous when signing free agents. The Bears had a lot of openings to fill. Still, a couple of solid signings that didn’t break the bank could have been had. Poles wasn’t interested. Sure, we kept hearing about some players the Bears were in on. Those reports, however, ended up being wrong on all accounts. Basically, we had reports about the Bears being in on just about every wide receiver and offensive line.

Who did they end up with?

They signed Equanimeous St. Brown and Byron Pringle, two players who haven’t made an impact. Additionally, they signed Lucas Patrick and Dakota Dozier. They also re-signed Sam Mustipher and Lachavious Simmons. While Patrick could be a good low-cost pickup (though playing full-time center for the first time), Dozier was a failure the last time he played on the offensive line.

In 2020, he played every snap and gave the Minnesota Vikings plenty of reasons to not want him on the line. He gave up 46 pressures, six sacks, and committed nine penalties. He was so bad that he spent most of the 2021 season on the practice squad. He did play in six games, but all of them were on special teams.

Simmons didn’t show much when he played last season. Despite all the struggles and injuries to the offensive line, he only got into two games. He did start one of them so he had more starts than Dozier, though.

Mustipher had to take a demotion. The Bears decided to bring him back but only as a backup after starting last year and part of 2020.

Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles needs to own up to the rebuild

Poles has to admit that the 2022 season will be another bad one. A team filled with players lacking the talent needed to win games will go nowhere. However, the general manager needs to own up to what is happening — this is the start of a rebuild. Not just any rebuild, but a multi-season rebuild.

Yes, the Bears have about $118 million to spend next season. As I mentioned, however, a lot of these no-name players signed for one season. We’ll be visiting the same situation next year, looking to fill a lot of openings. They will have more money to spend, but unless he starts to spend a little more, Poles is looking at another year of looking for bargains.

we saw how Theo Epstein leveled with the Chicago Cubs fans and told them things would get worse before they got better. That’s exactly what happened, but the fans stayed with him and eventually the Cubs rewarded them with a World Series title.

None of that is coming out of Halas Hall. Poles tried to get the fans excited about these signings.

"We are happy to add another tough offensive lineman to our team in Dakota."

The only thing tough about Dozier was having to watch him play. Vikings fans are happy they don’t have to do that anymore.

Is this how you develop Fields?

Poles took over for Ryan Pace and talked about fixing the offensive line and getting quality wide receivers so quarterback Justin Fields could have a better situation in 2022 than he had in 2021. That hasn’t happened. In fact, we’ve seen more of the same with Poles that we saw with other general managers. His signings on the defensive side of the ball are better than what we see on the offense.

The offensive line looks even weaker than it did in 2021, and that’s saying a lot. The unit gave up 58 sacks, leading the league. Also, aside from Darnell Mooney, there isn’t really a receiver you can totally depend on to be consistent.

How does this help Fields? The answer is that it doesn’t. He’ll be running around for his life again and he’ll have trouble finding open receivers because the receivers won’t be able to create separation. That means another season of surviving instead of developing. Two seasons into a potential five-season run on a rookie contract and the team might still not know what it has with him.

Some fans are falling for it, but most aren’t. There is a group that holds out hope for the draft. Well, the Bears have just six picks. They’ll likely pick up more with some wheeling and dealing but there certainly won’t be enough to really make a difference. Besides most of the picks will take some time to develop. Again, this is a rebuild.

A lot of fans see this upcoming season for what it really is, however — another lost season. The team won’t acknowledge that. Poles and company want us to think that they expect a competitive, winning team in 2022.

Chicago Bears fans deserve to be told the truth. They’ve suffered through a lot of losing seasons and watching this once-proud franchise fall to the depths of irrelevancy. If Poles and the Bears admit what we all see, the fans will understand. The Cubs went through 108 years of losing yet stuck with Epstein through some very bad seasons. Chicago Bears fans can do the same if they’re told the truth.