With the thrill of a new quarterback in Caleb Williams, the hype around the Bears building throughout the league amid roster upgrades and the spotlight of “Hard Knocks” and expectations of a playoff run this season, the brutal path that led here is easy to forget.
Don’t. The Bears owe you for all those wasted Sundays.
That general manager Ryan Poles has them thinking postseason in Year 3 of his tenure is remarkable given the deep hole from which he began. He inherited a six-win team from Ryan Pace that had a maximum of five keepers on the roster, didn’t have an upcoming first-round pick and was about to take a deathblow of the highest dead-salary-cap hit ever.
To Poles’ credit, he was restrained and disciplined, which required a lot of confidence in his job security.
This wasn’t a classic Bulls rebuild where they overspend on whoever happens to be available and hope for the best. But it also can’t turn into one of those never-ending White Sox rebuilds that doesn’t amount to much even at its peak.
A Bulls-related aside: Anybody else find it comical that HBO compared Williams to Michael Jordan less than 10 minutes into the first episode Tuesday? Let’s give him a minute before we jump to that.
Anyway, Poles has said repeatedly he intends to build something that lasts and can be replenished, which is foreign to the Bears but not impossible. The Packers, Patriots, Chiefs, Steelers, Seahawks, Ravens and others have done it for prolonged periods recently. They all had a franchise quarterback, though, so Williams is crucial.
But he’s not the only piece.
That’s where Poles’ conservative spending was prudent, albeit painful. As good as the Bears look now, they’re still well positioned with future draft assets and cap space.
They have their own first- and second-round draft picks next year, plus the Panthers’ second-rounder. That could be three immediate starters, especially for an administration that has a good track record in the draft — a big reason teams keep inquiring about assistant general manager Ian Cunningham.
And thanks to Poles and director of football administration Matt Feinstein, they also are projected to have the ninth-most cap space in 2025. The Bears’ $13.3 million in dead money is their lowest total since 2019 — before Pace tried to spend his way out of the mistake of drafting Mitch Trubisky.
Poles also has been proactive to lock down stars at key positions, allowing the Bears to save money in the long run.
The $24.5 million per year they gave defensive end Montez Sweat is sixth-highest at his position now, but likely will be a modest bargain next year. DJ Moore signed a four-year, $110 million extension that runs from 2026 through ’29, but the $27.5 million per season he is set to earn would rank seventh among receivers currently and will only fall as the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and others get new deals.
It's difficult to constantly be thinking ahead, especially with the urgency and distrust the Bears have stirred over years of ineptitude.
Bears fans are smart to be skeptical about everything they hear from Halas Hall. Trubisky always looked good in practice. Matt Nagy promised his offense was close to clicking as he went into his last season. Most recently, former offensive coordinator Luke Getsy brushed off Justin Fields’ mishaps as merely part of the process.
So as sensible as Poles’ approach has been, he doesn’t get forever to produce results.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Poles told the Sun-Times last year. “[But] I don’t want to climb up hard and fall back down. No one has patience for that, either.”
He’s right on both fronts. The Bears don’t have to go to the Super Bowl this season for it to be a success. But after what they put everyone through the last two seasons, there has to be some return on the investment. The playoffs are a must.
