Chicago Bears: Poles uses his experience with Chiefs to rebuild team

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is using his experience earned with the Kansas City Chiefs to help him turn things around.

When the Chicago Bears hired Ryan Poles to become general manager, not many people outside of the NFL community knew about him. He was a former Boston College offensive lineman who was unable to make it in the NFL.

It turns out that having Poles take over the latest Bears’ rebuild was a great thing. He came over from the Kansas City Chiefs, who had a big turnaround themselves.

People look at the Chiefs as a powerhouse team, the one that made it to three of the last four Super Bowls, winning two of them. They see one of the most potent offenses in the league.

The Chiefs weren’t always that powerhouse, however. They were at the bottom before they got it together and become one of the best teams in the league.

Poles was in the middle of all that. He started there in 2009 as a scout. He took over as Executive Director of Player Personnel. Before he did that, he worked in a number of positions.

In his time in Kansas City, Poles got to see how the team operated. He saw how they put the plan together to become great.

Now Poles uses the experience he had in Kansas City to try to do the same with the Chicago Bears.

Poles’ experience with the Chiefs influences his rebuild with the Chicago Bears

It turns out that there are many similarities between what Poles went through and what he faces in Chicago. Now, however, he is the one in charge.

In 2012, when he was Kansas City’s Coordinator of College Scouting, the Chiefs finished 2-14, the worst record in the league. They hired Andy Reid to coach the team. Additionally, they drafted Travis Kelce and Eric Fisher, two players who were instrumental in helping win the Super Bowl in 2019.

In Andy Reid, the Chiefs got a coach who changed the culture of losing. This is what Poles did with Matt Eberflus.

Eberflus came in to do the same culture change in Chicago. In 2022, wins and losses weren’t the main concern. They needed a strong head coach who could instill his culture. Ebeflus came in with his HITS principle. Not all the players bought into it, but when they saw it in action they did.

After years of seeing the Bears as an undisciplined team that committed bone-headed penalties, things changed in 2022. Chicago was one of the least penalized teams in the league.

Additionally, Chiefs general manager, Brett Veach, came in and cleared house. He traded away veterans and built the team through the draft.

This is exactly what Poles did when he took over. He traded players like Khalil Mack, allowed Akiem Hicks to walk via free agency, and cut Danny Trevathan. Ha acquired valuable draft picks, both in 2023 and in the future.

Later, the Chiefs found their franchise quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes has been great and did wonders for the offense.

Poles admits that at one point it was difficult being humble with all the success there was in Kansas City.

"I remember almost being borderline cocky walking in the stadium like, ‘All right, we’re gonna win this game; there’s an 80% chance we’re gonna win this game. That’s a really fun place to be when you get to that spot."

Poles wants to have that same feeling in Chicago as well. For now, though, he is very humble.

"I don’t know if we’ll get to it at that level, but I wanna have a good product where everyone’s happy and we can compete for championships."

Now Poles feels as if he has his franchise quarterback in Justin Fields. He still needs development, of course, but he has the tools to be a very good quarterback. Poles went out and gave him the weapons he wasn’t able to last season.

There is a reason why Poles has not deviated from his plan. Despite what experts and fans wanted him to do, he stays on track with his plan. He does so because he already saw the plan work. While he wasn’t there for Kansas City’s last Super Bowl win last year but he had a hand in it. Now he wants to do the same in Chicago.