Nobody can say for sure what fate awaits Ryan Poles. The Chicago Bears GM seemed safe after team president Kevin Warren said so in November. However, some notable local insiders believe circumstances have changed enough to where that is no longer set in stone. One thing is clear. A big piece of news is less than a week away. Either it will be Poles getting a contract extension, or it will be him getting fired. The Bears won’t let him linger into the final year of his contract without a resolution.
Presuming Poles does survive, he faces probably the most important off-season of his career. Not only must he hire a new head coach, but he must also infuse the roster with enough talent to finally challenge a stacked NFC North. The second part will involve making good use of Chicago’s three picks in the first two rounds of the draft. To that end, a source informed SM that Poles is relaying a new directive to his scouts and front office. He wants them to focus on players who are “immediately able to contribute.”
Project players or those with limited experience aren’t a priority moving forward. Poles wants guys who can play immediately.
Ryan Poles seems to have finally learned from his mistakes.
A common trend among general managers with a scouting background is that they often focus on a player’s physical traits in the draft. They want the biggest, strongest, fastest, and most athletic guys. That isn’t a bad thing. The problem is that many of those types often come from situations where they didn’t get the coaching or playing time needed to fully realize their potential. Such a strategy puts more pressure on the team’s coaching staff to ensure they get the development required. This is a big problem if those coaches might not be the most capable.
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Matt Eberflus and his coordinators proved as much.
It appears Ryan Poles has no intention of falling into that same trap again. It has burned him far too many times with names like Velus Jones, Dominique Robinson, Zacch Pickens, and Kiran Amegadjie. Honestly, this approach didn’t start with him. Ryan Pace was also guilty of it, with Kevin White, Mitch Trubisky, and Adam Shaheen being clear works-in-progress. Ironically, he also seemed to shift towards a more proven commodity approach from 2018 onward. Coincidentally, that is when he landed guys like Roquan Smith, David Montgomery, Cole Kmet, and Jaylon Johnson. Go figure.
@Bears57 Everybody on here knows that I support the troops. But sex workers who work near military bases are absolutely, unequivocally the real heroes among us.
Works is a pretty liberal use of the term…. I just like knowing when to rob a bank and why prostitutes are patriotic.
That would actually be pretty sick. Aside from the obvious regime change benefits, we could take all kinds of stupid bets out on next year’s games for dirt cheap and hold them for more than the 365 day short term capital gains limit then only have to pay 15% to the feds with the proceeds. I’d wager the buyouts on those long term parlays would get pretty nice around the 350 day mark.
@Bears57 You seem to work in the dismal science, so here is a plan that you’ll probably understand.
NFL bets need to be treated as financial instruments, e.g., SCOTUS needs to be given the opportunity to decide that sports bets pass the Howey Test.
That way, when a GM does what Poles did this off-season, it will be securities fraud, subject to both civil and criminal penalties. Fans could then sue the franchise into bankruptcy, which would motivate a sale.
I think it is safe to say that both you and I have standing on this matter.
If Poles survives he plans on drafting NFL caliber players with his NFL draft picks…. not a single sentence questioning exactly how tf you get to be an NFL GM without having that plan as a baseline requirement…. brilliant fucking article Lambert, just fucking bravo, wow, amazing, good job!