Insider Reveals Why Ryan Poles’ Draft Strategy Is Genius

Ryan Poles has already made one thing clear in his short tenure as Chicago Bears GM. He believes in stockpiling as many draft picks as possible. Don’t forget he entered his first off-season in 2022 with only five selections. By the time he was done trading at the end of April, he’d increased that number to 11. Now through a series of further moves headlined by trading the #1 overall pick, Chicago has ten selections for 2023. Poles believes the more you have, the better your odds are of landing good players.

Most people are focused on the top of the draft. That involves the 9th overall pick, two 2nd round picks, and a 3rd round pick. This isn’t a surprise. Those spots have better odds of yielding starters. That said, everybody knows this is the draft. Good players always slip through the cracks to the later rounds and even undrafted free agency. This is where Poles’ approach can be crucial. Luis Medina of Bleacher Nation spoke with ESPN insider Field Yates about the Bears GM.

He explained why the stacking of Day 3 assets may steer the franchise toward the light.

If you go back to last year and Ryan Poles’ first year on the clock as the GM for the Bears. On Day 3, he wheeled-and-dealed as much as anybody. And the idea behind that is probably rooted in a lot of things. But I believe, especially on Day 3, the more you can diversify your assets, the better. Because Day 3 picks, the gap between the middle of the fourth round and the middle of the first round is much greater than the gap between the middle of the fourth round and the middle of the seventh round.

Guys who go in the seventh round could have easily gone in the back of the fifth. Guys who go in the fifth round could have slipped through the cracks to the seventh. That’s just how the draft works. So you’re giving yourself way more ammunition and you also increase your future year flexibility because not every draft is created equally. Because while this is a draft that has a lot of notability because of the quarterbacks, I don’t know if there are as many blue-chip players in this year’s draft class as there will be if current projections hold for next year’s draft class.

Ryan Poles likely took his cue from Baltimore.

No organization does a better job of stacking Day 3 picks than the Ravens. Since 2015, they’ve held 45 selections between the 4th and 7th rounds. Three have become Pro Bowlers, and another four have started at least three seasons in the league. It isn’t only because their scouting department is really good at their jobs. It’s also because they take more swings than other teams. For context, the Bears had only had 30 such picks during the Ryan Pace era. Poles already utilized eight in his first draft. He has an additional six for next month.

It won’t be a surprise if he increases that number even further with additional trades. One can’t say it didn’t work. His efforts yielded Braxton Jones, who looks like a potential franchise left tackle. Trenton Gill is their starting punter, and Elijah Hicks looks like a quality special teams addition. That doesn’t include the large potential of Dominique Robinson at defensive end. The difference this year is the Bears will hold the top pick in three of the final four rounds. If Ryan Poles’ strategy holds, all he needs is to get lucky once in six rolls of the dice.