Ryan Poles has already explained multiple times since April what led him to the decision to draft Caleb Williams #1 overall. It was for a variety of reasons. Of course, the talent was obvious. Williams had a rare blend of arm strength, accuracy, and mobility. Beyond that, he had a natural instinct for making plays out of structure few quarterbacks possess. Poles also noted a certain poise and moxy under the lights, allowing him to perform at a high level despite high expectations. Perhaps most importantly, Williams demonstrated resilience in the face of frustrating setbacks during a difficult 2023 season.
What people haven’t seen is Poles break down some actual film of the young quarterback to help illustrate what he saw during the evaluation process. The Bears GM provided fans the rare opportunity during an interview with Cynthia Frelund of NFL Network.
This is another great example of how accessible Poles is as a general manager. Ryan Pace never would’ve done something like this. Poles saw no reason to hide his reasons for loving Williams. They are certainly valid ones. Nobody can say for sure if he’ll be a success, but the building blocks are there.
Ryan Poles is the first GM to have a logical process.
Everyone before him seems to have failed to handle the quarterback issue the wrong way. Jerry Angelo settled for Rex Grossman right before a two-year stretch of drafts that yielded Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Aaron Rodgers. Then he gave up a bounty of picks for a Hail Mary on Jay Cutler. Phil Emery doubled down by handing Cutler a lucrative extension he frankly hadn’t earned. Pace badly mishandled the evaluation process in 2017, falling in love with Mitch Trubisky without giving more serious consideration to Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson. Then, he compounded that mistake by giving away more assets for Justin Fields.
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From the outset, Ryan Poles refused to rush the process. He disassembled the roster and worked hard to rebuild it. He had the opportunity to get his quarterback in 2023 with the #1 pick. However, he knew the roster wasn’t ready to receive one. So, he traded it for assets. Those became D.J. Moore, Darnell Wright, Tyrique Stevenson, Williams, and Montez Sweat. This is the best situation a young quarterback has arguably ever walked into. If he lives up to his draft projections, they may soon build statues of Poles down Michigan Avenue.
Might it also be that previous GMs/HCs/Bears records were so bad that just about anybody with some sense and a good bit of yearly luck would gradually tend to improve the team to an NFL average/mean level. That is why the Bears win-lost records this year and next year will determine, indeed, if both Caleb and Poles are special or not.
@ManGod – Spot on sir. I also think the Bears get a break with the schedule in the first half for CW to work the kinks out and figure more out with the pro game. We also got breaks both the Packers and Lions won’t get, and that is playing a much weaker schedule because of where we finished last year in correlation to them.
While both comments have factual merit, the simple truth is C Williams appears to be best college QB in recent memory. But, as pointed out in the previous comments talent does not always translate into elite levels of production. Unfortunately for QB’s not named Mahomes, their success is often predicted by the talent of their OL in protecting them and the WRs/TEs catching their passes or providing them with open targets. I do believe C Williams has all the necessary skills and athleticism to reach ‘elite’ status, I also believe it may take the first 8-9 games before we actually… Read more »
C’mon fella’s, the glaring point to this story is in BOLD print…”Ryan Poles is the first GM to have a logical process”…at least since Jim Finks. Gotta appreciate that.
I often disagree with @TGena, but he has a valid point here. Caleb Williams could be the next Pat Mahomes, or he could be the next Joey Harrington, or he could end up somewhere between these extremes. As a Bears fan, I’m rooting for the first, but we won’t know the truth until we’re well into the 2024 season.