Ryan Poles may have received a vote of confidence from Kevin Warren two weeks ago, but the Chicago Bears GM’s career has gone downhill since. The team got blown out of Levi Stadium but an undermanned San Francisco 49ers team who led 24-0 at one point. Then, an expose by the Chicago Tribune revealed several egregious blunders by Poles, from the poor process in hiring Matt Eberflus to his ignoring advice not to sign Nate Davis. A few days later, the team was again blown out on the road, this time in Minnesota by the Vikings. Nothing summed the night up more than a viral moment in the second half where Caleb Williams was seen languishing on the bench, clearly in pain and exhausted.
That picture couldn’t sum up Poles’ failure any better if you tried. He drafted this young man to be the savior of the franchise, all the while doing an incredibly poor job building around him. His head coach and offensive coordinator were both fired before the end of the season. His offensive line has allowed 58 sacks. It is a disaster.
The constant concern was that the Bears hadn’t done enough to help a young quarterback handle the transition to the NFL. Poles urged everybody to calm down. He’d built a strong receiving corps. The team revamped the offensive staff with Shane Waldron. The offensive line was returning four starters and had better depth. Everything would be fine. Clearly, the Bears GM was way too optimistic with his forecasting. Waldron was a complete fiasco, having no leadership or ability to adjust. The offensive line was beset by injuries from the beginning, and they never stopped. Caleb Williams got dropped in the path of a tornado and was told to hold his ground. Unsurprisingly, it sucked him up and spit him out instead.
