Looking at the state of the two teams, some people might laugh at Ryan Poles for choosing the Chicago Bears GM position over the Minnesota Vikings. The latter is 3-1 with control of the NFC North. The other has the worst offense in the NFL and holes across the entire roster. In hindsight, it seems as if the 36-year-old chose poorly. However, it was never about 2022 with Poles. His eyes were on the future.
Initial rumors suggested the Vikings’ ownership wasn’t willing to let Poles remake the roster in his vision. He had to keep several key players, including quarterback Kirk Cousins. There were no such restrictions in Chicago. Matthew Coller, a Vikings beat writer for Purple Insider, offered more details on what likely tipped the scales via NBC Sports Chicago. It came down to the contract dimensions. They offered a four-year deal. Most new GMs get five or six years. That likely kept the door open for the Bears.
.@matthewcoller on why Ryan Poles might have passed on the Vikings
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That is what it pretty much comes down to. Minnesota likely felt they had a team capable of competing for a championship. All it needed was some subtle tweaks here and there. That may sound right to them, but it likely came across as delusional to an outsider like Poles. He saw an organization content with continuing to be just good enough to be a fringe playoff participant every year. That isn’t his goal. He expects to compete for the Super Bowl every year. That was the standard set in Kansas City. It’s the standard he would bring to whichever team he took over.
The hard part for the Bears was accepting that they’d have to be bad before they got good. Ryan Poles tore down almost two-thirds of the roster from last season. He cleared up tons of future cap space and made multiple trades to secure 11 picks in his first draft. Nobody knows how things went for his first off-season. It looks like he found a few good players, such as Jaquan Brisker and Dominique Robinson. More could emerge in the coming weeks.
The truth is the heavy lifting has only begun. Minnesota might be better now, but Poles plans for that to be very different one or two years down the line.
