The Chicago Bears have their fair share of outspoken critics among the national media. It comes with the territory of being a storied franchise that has struggled for most of the last decade. While some of the criticism is warranted, a lot of it has been unfair or baseless. One person who seems to specialize in both is Colin Cowherd. He’s delivered some baffling takes over the years about this team, many of which were easy to debunk and dismiss. Every time he’s talking about successful teams, especially when quarterbacks are involved, he can’t resist sniping the Bears.
So one can imagine the shock when Cowherd admitted on camera that the team is actually starting to look like a viable contender. A big reason for that was their decision to hire Ryan Poles as their general manager two years ago.
It can’t be overstated. The work Poles has done overhauling the Bears roster is nothing short of miraculous. He turned the defense back into a respectable and even feared unit. Yet what really stands out is his work on offense. D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen arrived via savvy trades to improve the receiver room. Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright headline a young and athletic offensive line. Now his trade with Carolina last year has put him in line to take one of the best quarterback prospects of the past several years.
Most of their previous general managers had the same issue. They would be good at finding talent on one side of the ball but were completely useless on the opposite side. Ryan Pace found four Pro Bowl players on the defensive side of the ball during his tenure. He found two on the offensive side and both alternates. Meanwhile, Phil Emery added four Pro Bowlers on offense and only one on defense. No GM has managed to bridge that gap for the past 40 years. Not since Jim Finks ran the show in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Based on Cowherd’s comments, it appears Ryan Poles has broken that trend. D.J. Moore was fantastic last year. Wright and Jones are both ascending. Meanwhile, he acquired Montez Sweat, Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards, Tyrique Stevenson, Kyler Gordon, and Jaquan Brisker on defense. If he can hit on the quarterback in this draft, he’ll have set the Chicago Bears up for the next decade. Cowherd may be wrong a lot, but those comments were at least on point.
