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I'm fired up about the Ryan Poles extension, but I know I might get burned

Even though I believe Ryan Poles will succeed during his new contract extension as Bears GM, it feels like we're on the brink of disaster.

We’ve Been Here Before

Much like Ryan Poles’ pre-game laps, we’re going in circles. Or rectangles? Or ovals?

There’s excitement amongst Bears fans again. It’s a fresh start with a new coach and the future franchise quarterback. It’s time to put all of the nightmares behind us.

It’s 2018 all over again.

Ryan Pace had 3 seasons of 14-34 football as he built up the roster from nothing. Ownership gave him a 2-year contract extension so he could see his vision come to fruition. One year after selecting his favorite QB in the draft, he went out to find the best offensive head coach candidate in the NFL and fell in love with Matt Nagy.

Does this sound familiar yet?

Fast forward 7 years, a whole lot of heartbreak, incompetence, and a very asymmetrical route to the start of the journey…and we made it back.

It’s time for the Bears to launch. To be relevant again. To turn interviews that led to hirings that led to team building into real life wins on the football field.

Since the organization has repeatedly handled everything incorrectly, and we’ve witnessed 1 playoff win in the last 15 years, my hope has dwindled at every turn.

Now, I’ve never understood fans who enter a season or any random game with blind optimism, but I’m glad they can enjoy the sport in a care-free manner. For me, the big picture matters more than anything. I’m only excited for Week 4 if I believe the Bears are heading the right direction as a franchise.

There SHOULD be no shred of evidence leading me to believe the Bears can actually win 9+ games this season. Although I’m tiptoeing along the line to the Kool-Aid pitcher, I believe it’s different this time. Ryan Poles is different. This roster construction is different.

Accomplishments

Ryan Poles’ accomplishments as GM have all been housekeeping. He made impactful decisions to help turn things around long-term, but the wins have evaded him to this point.

To his credit, he cleared out an aging roster, he cleaned up messy salary cap books filled with unnecessary void years until the end of time, found a new quarterback, and made some aggressive moves. He waved his wand and turned 5 2022 draft picks into 11 and made 34 selections over 4 years for an average of 8.5 per year. He talked about building through the draft very early on, and he has actually accumulated enough ammo to back that up.

The roster is objectively much better than where Ryan Pace left it after the 6-11 mess in 2021. I would argue that David Montgomery, Roquan Smith, and Robert Quinn might be the only 3 players who would be a legitimate upgrade over whoever is holding that position on the 2025 Bears. The names have changed dramatically.

They’re sitting pretty with a quarterback on a rookie deal. 3 stud receivers are under contract for at least the next 3 seasons, the new-look offensive line will be together for 3 seasons, and the impact players on defense have already been locked up long-term. The depth all over the field has improved. They will even have wiggle room to add elite talent before Caleb Williams gets paid 500 million dollars.

Downside

Everything on paper looks promising. How often do these types of paper get burned?

I was excited when Poles got hired in 2022. He was young, he had (almost) nothing to do with the Bears, he came from a championship organization, and he was even a former player. He had experience in each part of football operations and worked under extremely talented executives. He spoke clearly and said all the right things.

Unfortunately, the wheels fell off when the 2023 season kicked off at Soldier Field against the Green Bay Packers. The Bears were completely unprepared. They didn’t just lay an egg at home, they cracked all of the eggs and smushed them all over the grass. It took 4 whoopings to get Matt Eberflus’ defense on track, and by then we all accepted that the offense would be a joke. The talent Poles had acquired was not making a difference.

The 5-3 end to the season pulled me right back in. It was a rebuild, right? Having major issues in Year 2 before figuring it out and carrying a ton of momentum into Year 3 was almost best case scenario for a team that gutted their roster.

I don’t know if it was blind Justin Fields hope, signs of a successful rebuild, feel-good content showing players having a great time together, a defense that looked like it could be a Top 5 unit resembling historic Bears football, or the winner-in-the-making illusion created by Hard Knocks, but I was all in on the 2024 Bears. They were about to take off.

An elite defense would carry the rookie quarterback until the offense figured it out. The most talented quarterback prospect in the last decade would find ways to score before fully figuring out the NFL level. Team chemistry would carry them through the ups and downs with a perfect mix of veterans and young players.

“I love this team.”

Ryan Poles made that declaration on the Hoge and Johns podcast last August, and now I truly won’t believe any positive feelings about this team moving forward.

He loved the team that didn’t work hard enough. He loved the team that fired their offensive coordinator after 9 games. He loved the team that lost focus and lost on a Hail Mary, let go of the rope, had no direction, had nothing to play for, fired their head coach midseason for the first time in franchise history, had blowups in the locker room, and lost 10 straight games.

Ryan Poles loved that team.

And so I’m conflicted. Poles has done a lot of good, and the Bears are promising yet again. I think they did find their franchise quarterback, and if Caleb Williams develops into a great quarterback, Poles has a Get Out Of Jail Free card for doing the impossible in this city.

He even insisted on hiring the most sought-after, respected, successful head coaching candidate in the entire league over the last couple seasons. He found the next great offensive mind to form a decade-long power pairing with Williams. The pieces appear to be in place.

I just can’t forget the missteps. He didn’t see the lack of command Matt Eberflus had in that locker room, and he kept him around way too long. He thought he built the perfect team chemistry when he actually found a bunch of dudes looking elsewhere for leadership. He took unnecessary swings early on in a rebuild that set them back. I know he couldn’t address every position in his first couple years as GM, but did he have to completely ignore the offensive line until NOW?

Some days the draft is important, and other days he prefers proven talent. Some days he wants to be aggressive, some days he sits back. Some days culture is important, and some days Halas Hall is on fire. How many coaches have been fired or have resigned under his watch?

Relatable Ryan

Despite his shortcomings, I’m a Ryan Poles supporter. He turned the organization around and found real talent for this football team. It HAS to translate to wins and playoff appearances, but in the meantime, I’m going to trust the man who just seems more relatable than anyone else we’ve seen in his chair.

He’s a family man who worked his way up the corporate ladder. Now all he wants is to succeed at his job and win a ring. Is there anything wrong with that? When it’s easy to come up with THE list of his mistakes, it means his batting average is actually very good.

He always talks about wanting to understand and care for the player. Not just as a jersey number but as a man.

For better or worse, Poles wears his emotions on his sleeve. Whether he’s attending the funeral press conference alongside Kevin Warren after firing Eberflus or he’s smiling ear-to-ear in the locker room holding on to the biggest Bear hug with a player, we see a lot of what he’s feeling. Hard Knocks showed us how difficult it was for him to release Adrian Colbert because of his respect for Colbert as a man.

Ryan Poles is relatable. Not because I’m a 6’4” offensive lineman running a football team, but because he cares.

I felt the heartache when he had to tell his son he was trading away Justin Fields. His son dressed up as Fields for Halloween! I felt the determination after drafts when Poles spoke with supreme confidence about the 110+ mock drafts he executed and how the draft turned out exactly the way he expected.

A genuine human being like Poles is easy to root for even when the road has been rocky.

Maybe one of Poles’ pre-game laps will lead him through the tunnel and outside the stadium. It’s about time we see a deviation in the course.

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