Ryan Poles isn’t even a full year into his tenure as Chicago Bears GM. Yet that hasn’t stopped fans from lambasting him for countless failures at making this team a winner—most of the vitriol centers around his inability to build a better structure around quarterback Justin Fields. As usual, people fail to take the broader context into account. Poles is basically like a U.S. president taking over his first year of office. The country is struggling, and he’s getting the blame even though the previous president instituted many policies that led to the issues.
That is where Poles is at. He didn’t create this mess. He inherited it from Ryan Pace. Team building in the NFL is multifaceted. Good players can be found almost anywhere in the draft, in free agency, and on the trade market. However, most executives would agree with one undeniable reality. The teams that can consistently hit on their 1st round picks almost always end up having sustained success. This is prevalent in the Bears to an extreme degree. Check out the list below, which compares every roster with a winning record so far this season to the Bears.
Number of homegrown 1st round picks on current roster:
- Philadelphia Eagles – 7
- Buffalo Bills – 7
- Minnesota Vikings – 5
- New York Giants – 7
- Dallas Cowboys – 7
- Kansas City Chiefs – 4
- Los Angeles Chargers – 7
- New York Jets – 7
- Tennessee Titans – 4
- Chicago Bears – 2
Let that sink in. The Bears have two 1st round picks on their roster from the past decade. One is Roquan Smith, easily their most successful in that timespan, and the other is Justin Fields, their most recent. Here is what happened to the rest.
- 2012 – Shea McClellin (bust)
- 2013 – Kyle Long (Retired early due to injuries)
- 2014 – Kyle Fuller (Good pick but faded as he hit his 30s)
- 2015 – Kevin White (bust)
- 2016 – Leonard Floyd (underwhelmed)
- 2017 – Mitch Trubisky (underwhelmed)
- 2018 – Roquan Smith (Hit)
- 2019 – Traded for Khalil Mack
- 2020 – Traded for Khalil Mack
- 2021 – Justin Fields (not looking good)
- 2022 – Traded for Fields
The Chicago Bears hit on three 1st round picks in a decade.
Two of them were in the decade’s first half and didn’t reach their 30s before leaving the team. If people were looking for the primary reason why this team is terrible, there you go. Pace not only made mostly underwhelming 1st round picks, he traded three of the last four away in desperate attempts to build a winner. That egregious mismanagement is why the Bears are in their current state. They have little star power and minimal roster depth.
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Poles knew this was coming in. It is why the young GM overturned more than half the roster. He understands good teams are built through the draft. Pace left him with no 1st rounder in his inaugural off-season. The real work can finally begin in 2023 when the Chicago Bears are back in the 1st round. At their current trajectory, the likelihood is high they’ll end up in the top 10. That could be a great launching point for their rebuild if Poles can secure a true difference-maker. Something his predecessors failed to accomplish far too often.
