Ryan Poles is the last unknown ahead of the Chicago Bears’ off-season. That might seem unusual, considering team president Kevin Warren stated the GM would lead the search for the next coach. However, plenty of people don’t believe his fate is determined just yet. With Matt Eberflus gone, people have started taking a serious look at the construction of the Bears’ roster and have come away unimpressed. While some good players are interspersed across each position group, there isn’t much star power and a glaring weakness in the trenches.
The Bears have now lost eight straight games, the second-longest streak in franchise history. Poles was also part of the longest one (14 games) between the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Other GMs have been through rebuilds as well but never fielded teams this hopeless. For all the talk about establishing a winning culture, Poles has failed. Why should people trust him to get the next coach right? The short answer is they shouldn’t. In discussing this topic, Bears insider Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron sure made it sound like the GM is in trouble.
If Warren takes a serious look at the big picture, the decision will be obvious.
Kevin Warren has a decision to make and if you pull back and look at the big picture. How can you justify giving Ryan Poles an extension and aligning him with a new head coach based on the 2024 team performance?
The answer is simple: you cannot.
Kevin Warren is going to come to the same conclusion that I have.
Ryan Poles must lose his job.
There have been plenty of positives about his tenure, but there’s just no way you can trust Ryan Poles to be the general manager for the next three or four years, aligned with the new coach as the man to surround Caleb Williams with the talent to take the Bears to a Super Bowl contender.
We are just two months away from the Bears’ 4-2 record. We were all thinking playoffs, and now the team is headed for another reset.
This season was a failure in every aspect. Nate Davis’ head rolled. Shane Waldron’s head rolled. Matt Eberflus’ head rolled. Ryan Poles is next.
Ryan Poles’ last line of defense is George McCaskey.
The only salvation he has is the fact that the team owner played a central role in hiring him. McCaskey is known for being loyal to his inner circle. Look how long he protected Ted Phillips despite glaring evidence that the man wasn’t qualified for his job. The Bears chairman may not be wild about the idea of dumping the GM he hand-picked after just three years. Don’t forget he kept Ryan Pace despite three ugly seasons from 2015 through 2017. It isn’t crazy to think he’d offer the same opportunity again.
Much of this hinges on Warren. He is the wild card. The team president already convinced McCaskey that firing Eberflus midseason was best for the team, which had never happened before. If he reaches the conclusion Zimmerman believes he will, that means Ryan Poles will be gone after the season ends. The Bears would reset at the top with a new GM and head coach, hopefully with a common vision on how to guide the franchise out of the pits and back into the light.
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Frustrating about Joe Alt and Bowers. Starting to feel like we’re beating a dead horse – dejavu @ Nagy & Pace. Wanted Zach Frazier and Centers in 2023, Was concerned as everyone who stated their O-line fears in training camp. I Iove Rome but I was shocked he was chosen instead of Verse. I realize Verse dropped some and a number of peeps argued pick 9 should be traded down, well ahead of the draft. I wanted to trade down from 1.01 because Mahomes and Josh Allen were not 1.01’s. I would ask you which moves have won games? Did… Read more »
@Sam During the White Zombie days, my top three were/are:
(1) More Human than Human, (2) Thunder Kiss ’65, and (3) Blood, Milk and Sky.
@Benedict Arnold I’m not a pissed or angry fan, just the opposite. So your lengthy apologetically crafted thesis does not include knowledgeable, intelligent, critically responsible, highly perceptive, very experienced, open-minded, and handsome me and the few other Lions here.
His firing is not the same as the death penalty. If we are somehow wrong about his ineptitude, Poles is not going to die as a mistaken scapegoat in the electric chair. Your conclusion is notoriously absurd that such might be an injustice to him or a major loss to the Bears.
There’s a few things that everyone in the lynch mob never mentions. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re too busy making sure their torches don’t set their own house on fire or they have such a raging hard-on to fire people, that they can’t see beyond the tip. First, there’s some logic being ignored. If the majority of people believed this was a pretty good roster and they had a good shot at the playoffs prior to week 1, and most still felt that way when they were 4-2, andcespecially after seeing Caleb bring the team back with less… Read more »
Permit me Stevie:
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” he’s yours