The Chicago Bears appear to be in a great place as the 2024 season approaches. Their roster is flush with young, athletic talent across the board for the first time in years. They’ve built yet another solid defense anchored by one of the league’s most intriguing cornerback groups. Offensively, they’ve gone through a complete transformation with new arrivals like Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, D’Andre Swift, and Caleb Williams. All of this comes from the vision of GM Ryan Poles, who started the entire process three years ago when he blew up the roster to start over.
He didn’t mince words back then. Poles felt the team was in rough shape. They were too old, too expensive, and not all that good at too many spots. Changes were needed, not only to the roster itself but the entire organizational process. Analytics were embraced. New voices came in with new ideas. A clear vision was laid out—no more spending big on free agents every year. Focus on the draft. Take calculated risks in the trade market when opportunities arise. Don’t overreach.
Poles didn’t shy away from expressing his disdain for how the team was built before he arrived. If it weren’t obvious before that he didn’t have any respect for former GM Ryan Pace, recent comments to the Chicago Tribune put that to bed.
“The infrastructure has to be there,” Poles said. “And I think we’ve done that part to have the talent around our quarterback now. The other thing is our entire organization is going to have to be on the same page on how we handle this, how we develop Caleb.
“I think we have a really good approach with all of the players and I think that’s maybe different than it was in the past. The way we take it really serious in terms of a nutritional standpoint to performance to mental skills to how our coaches teach. I think we’ve made some really good strides.
“But it’s going to take everybody and everyone is going to be on the same page. We’ve got to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses that the player has.”
The former Bears GM didn’t even give head coach John Fox a heads-up before drafting Mitch Trubisky in 2017. Then, after one season, Pace fired him for Matt Nagy. He replaced one head coach who didn’t want to take a quarterback at all with another head coach who admitted he wouldn’t have drafted Trubisky if given the choice. A few years later, the Bears traded up for Justin Fields. Rather than sticking to their original plan by sitting him for the season, they threw him to the wolves once Andy Dalton got hurt and never had any semblance of identity the rest of the year.
Ryan Poles has no plans to go through a fiasco like that. He and Eberflus have been on the same page throughout the process. They evaluated Williams together, and both agreed he was their guy. Then, just to make sure everybody understood the plan, they stated Williams would be the unquestioned starter moving forward. There will be no sitting on the bench for a veteran or meaningless camp battles. He is the guy. The plan is clear. The vision is clear. Chicago will sink or swim doing it this way.
