When Chicago Bears scouts conduct their evaluations of both veteran and college players, they usually have a list of words they focus on. Words like size, speed, athleticism, strength, quickness, toughness, and intelligence. These are the things that make up what athletes are. The higher marks a player gets in those categories, the likelier their chances of having success in the NFL. Ryan Poles knows that.
However, the Bears GM also knows one must dig deeper to separate the great players from everybody else. Having success in football isn’t easy. Plenty of exceptional athletes have come and gone in the league without making significant contributions. At the same time, guys with average athletic upside went on to have long careers. Determining why remains one of the great mysteries for every top executive in football. Poles believes one key trait rests in a word that isn’t covered enough, according to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic.
Bears college scouts have been told to add a trait to their list, in case it wasn’t already there — resilience. It’s something Poles has mentioned with the veterans the Bears signed, and what he looks for when scouting players.
“Someone alluded to the fact that a lot of the free agents we brought in were undrafted,” Poles said. “They had to fight. They had to be resilient. They had to prove. They had to have self-awareness, to look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘I’ve got to get better at these things if I’m gonna make it.’ So we look forward to that.”
It makes sense. When a player has to fight through adversity to reach the NFL, it’s a surefire guarantee they’ll fight to stay in it. They’ll fight to excel. It isn’t a surprise Poles would focus on something like that. He was an undrafted free agent out of Boston College in 2008. He had to work his way from the bottom in the scouting world to get where he is now. Identifying players in his image is hardly unheard of.
Just look at the free agents he’s acquired since taking over. Byron Pringle almost didn’t even make it to college because of arrests as a teenager. He came in as an undrafted free agent with Kansas City. Al-Quadin Muhammad was a 6th round pick that needed multiple seasons before becoming a starter. Lucas Patrick came from a basketball school at Duke. Nicholas Morrow was a nobody from Greenville in Division III. It’s little wonder Poles gravitated to them.
There is never a shortage of players with a massive chip on their shoulders coming out of college. Some are upset they were drafted lower than they should’ve been. Others had to escape difficult issues at home or fight to help feed their families. The trick is finding these guys and then determining if they also have the talent to thrive in the NFL. That is why Poles tagged Matt Eberflus as the new head coach.
He embraces the art of teaching the game of football. That is something many head coaches today don’t do enough of. Eberflus will also place a high demand on players. They’ll have to embrace the idea of hard work and relentless effort. Ryan Poles knows that players with high resilience won’t even blink at such an idea. That is part of their DNA. This is another reason why this GM and head coach pairing seems to mesh so well.
It feels like resilience has been in short supply for this franchise going back several years. Every time the Bears have encountered serious adversity, they seem to crumble. That is why they have two winning seasons in a decade. Talent alone doesn’t explain that. It was also finding the wrong types of players.
