Chicago Bears: Despite a number of assets, don’t expect Poles to go wild

Despite having a lot of assets to work with this offseason, don’t expect Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles to go wild by making huge moves.

There is a great deal of anticipation for the Chicago Bears offseason. After a 3-14 season, the team earned the top pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. It is only the third time the franchise has had it. In addition to the top overall pick, they have seven other picks.

Additionally, the Bears enter the free agency period with the league’s biggest wallet (by far). Chicago is projected to have over $100 million in salary cap space.

Chicago Bears Nation is excited to see what general manager Ryan Poles does with all he has. Many fans expect Poles to build a Super Bowl contender right away.

Those expectations should be tempered, however.

Poles stated almost every time he talks about rebuilding the team that he wants a team that sustains winning. He doesn’t want to have a one-hit wonder, he wants a team that contends for a decade or more.

In order to do that, he cannot go around on big spending sprees on a couple of players. For example, there is a great portion of the fanbase who wants to see Saquon Barkley in the backfield despite his market value of $12.3 million.

It would be nice to have Barkley in the backfield. The Bears had the top rushing attack in the league in 2022. Combining Justin Fields and Barkley would strengthen that attack. However, paying $12.3 million for a running back seems too much. There are a number of holes in this roster to be spending that much money on a running back.

This is the history of the Bears for the last several decades. They make a splash by signing a big-name player. After spending all that money on one player, there wasn’t enough to help round out the roster. As a result, there were nice plays by the star but not a lot of wins.

Poles wants to avoid that. That was the point of sacrificing the 2022 season. The Bears had to bite the bullet in order to be in their current position.

This is what Poles says about how he wants to build the roster.

"I want to stair-step this thing to the top and then stay up there as long as absolutely possible…I always go back to making sound decisions. And sometimes when you don’t make sound (acquisition) decisions, in the short term it can look really good. But then it’s what happens after (that)…We want to make decisions that can last a long time so we can stay at the top. We don’t want to peak and then have the drop-off after."

Expect to see Poles make a number of signings but maybe not the big splash a lot of fans expect. With the money he has available, Poles can be in on any player he wants. If he spends a ton of money on one or two players then, again, the rest of the roster will suffer.

The same goes for the draft. Poles has a number of valuable picks he could use in a number of ways. There are some who say he could pick up great prospects with the picks. However, those picks give Poles flexibility not just this year but next year as well.

Not many people expect Poles to keep that top overall pick. There are a number of teams that are in need of a quarterback. They will pay a small ransom to jump over other quarterback-needy teams so they could get their guy.

One of the ways to build sustained winning is through the draft. This is what Poles continues to insist. He wants to build through the draft. In order to do so, he needs to acquire as many picks as possible.

The number one pick will bring in more picks. We saw last year how Poles was not afraid to pull the trigger on draft-day deals. He turned three picks (he kept his two second-round picks he had) into nine. He has the opportunity to amass more picks. That helps fill some of the holes.

Of course, the top overall pick is the most valuable. At some point, the Bears will have two first-round picks. There are a number of teams with two first-round picks that could trade with the Bears. In addition, if the Bears don’t get two first-round picks this year they will most certainly have them next year.

We saw how having two first-round picks helps hasten a rebuild. The Jacksonville Jaguars had two of them in the 2022 draft (and also the most salary cap space). They went from 3-14 with the top overall pick (sound familiar?) to 9-8 and AFC South champions.

Additionally, we saw how the New York Giants also turned into a playoff team after a four-win season in 2021. They also had two first-round picks in 2022.

At some point, the Bears will have two first-round picks. Combined with other picks that should help in the rebuild. The Chicago Bears might not be Super Bowl contenders right away but they will be on the right path and will certainly be more respectable going forward.