Many Chicago Bears fans are nervous about the next two months. They know that this off-season will be heavily focused on fixing the offensive line. The problem is that the man most directly responsible for its construction up to this point is still in charge. Despite being a former offensive lineman himself, Ryan Poles’ efforts leave a lot to be desired. Darnell Wright is turning into a good player, but outside of him, it’s been mostly mediocre to outright bad. Braxton Jones is average. Nate Davis was a disaster. Ryan Bates was damaged goods. It is fair to question his eye for talent in that area.
Thankfully, it appears new head coach Ben Johnson was at least somewhat aware of this issue. That is why his hiring of Dan Roushar as offensive line coach is so important. He held that job with the New Orleans Saints from 2016 through 2020. At that time, they drafted Ryan Ramczyk, Will Clapp, Erik McCoy, and Cesar Ruiz. All are still active in the league, one is a Pro Bowler, and another is an All-Pro. Presuming the Saints accepted his input on scouting reports, this indicates he has a sharp eye for talent.
Ryan Poles does a good job of giving coaches a voice in scouting.
He absorbed that during his time in Kansas City. History says that when coaches and scouts are aligned on players, it usually produces good results. Johnson has done Ryan Poles a great service with the staff he’s put together. He and Roushar will be able to help the GM pinpoint guys who not only fit the system they’ll build but should end up becoming good players. Chicago is well-positioned to fix this issue. They have almost $70 million in cap space and four picks in the first three rounds. They should be able to come away with three credible starters with those resources. For the first time in the past few years, it feels like they have the right minds in the right places to get it done.
Enough with the hype!
Every year, so-called sports writers fill Bears fans with unreasonable expectations that no coach could live up to.
Let’s just say that based on past experience, Johnson has assembled what appears to be a good staff. BUT, it means nothing unless that translates to wins.
Now get free agents and draft prospects to fill the OL/DL needs and depth issues. Then we can get excited about the team we’re putting together!
@Dr. Steven Sallie – Yes America at least seems to have taken a Cult like approach to almost everything including football.
@Skee We are living in a post-truth era where logic, reason, empiricism, legal evidence, and science can be brushed away with lies, myths, and mysticism. So, that, the average person does not know what to believe.
I never drank the kool-aid about Ryan Poles being a O-Line Guru, his work speaks for itself if you don’t like nut sacks in your mouth from time to time.
Those of us who live in reality see Ryan Poles as inexperienced and we acknowledge his evaluations of certain players as well as the dumpster fire roster he’s put together, of course we have to say we hope he improves because he still is part of the organization.
This article will get the author tarred and feathered by select Bears fans who feel Ryan Poles deserves absolutely no criticism for his job performance even though they are evaluated in their own jobs, talk about living in an upside down world..!