The Chicago Bears‘ thrilling comeback over Tennessee on Sunday lined up perfectly with GM Ryan Poles’ vision for them. Above all else, he wanted to build a resilient team that didn’t quit when things got tough. Despite falling behind 17-0, they rallied to win 24-17. Plenty of players contributed to the effort. D.J. Moore led the team in receiving. Darnell Wright didn’t allow a single pressure on the quarterback. Tyrique Stevenson delivered the kill shot with his pick-six. People may notice a common connection between those three names.
All were acquired by Poles in the blockbuster trade with the Carolina Panthers last year.
Many are starting to call that deal one of the worst in NFL history. While the Panthers got Bryce Young, who hasn’t had the best start to his career, the Bears got a star wide receiver and four high draft choices. Three of the picks have led to Wright, Stevenson, and Caleb Williams. They still have another 2nd rounder waiting in 2025. They could build a statue of Poles just for that robbery. As it turns out, his motivation in that trade may go beyond doing what’s best for the Bears.
Revenge might’ve been on his mind, too.
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Ryan Poles is a competitor.
People should not undersell that. Getting passed over by Carolina for Scott Fitterer in 2021 undoubtedly stung. After all, Poles had just helped Kansas City reach back-to-back Super Bowls and win one of them. He’d bided his time for a decade waiting for this shot. Anybody with an ego would’ve taken that moment a little bit personally. So when the Panthers came to him about the availability of the #1 pick, Poles must’ve smelled an opportunity. He knew they were desperate for a quarterback and had an owner known for meddling. If he played things right, he could get a king’s ransom.
That is exactly what happened. Carolina must be having major regrets about that deal. Their roster is in terrible shape. Those picks they gave up could’ve helped with retooling things. Don’t forget they had Baker Mayfield on their roster at one point but chose to cut him before the end of 2022. Now he’s a Pro Bowler with Tampa Bay, a division rival. Ryan Poles has to be laughing maniacally to himself when no one else is around at how things shook out.
All of us want the Chicago Bears to be a ringing success. However, we can’t overlook three critical components in the current plan: 1.) QB, Caleb Sequan Williams, “LLC” has to be the “Real Deal” — or, it’s a “back to the drawing board” situation at Halas Hall (But, don’t fool yourself into believing Tyson Bagent wouldn’t love the opportunity to shine.); 2.) the current players that represent Ryan Poles’ NFL GM proficiency test (with or without an NFL QB#1 in place) appear to be: IDL, Gervon Dexter Sr. and Zacch Pickens; C/OG, Ryan Bates, Coleman Shelton and Nate Davis;… Read more »
@Dr. Melhus On the surface your Poles-Bears assertion is convincing, at least superficially, to male hyenas. Pole’s getting the Bears GM position is already at least partial payback during this time. He succeeded. If he has a winning Bears team for years, this symbiotic relationship helps secure more success. But if he is extremely vengeful like Donald Fuck, he will have many opportunities to finish the full revenge–from making purposefully bad decisions to sabotaging good ones to writing a tell-all book about numerous Bears things. Of course, we do not know if he is like that or not. Hopefully not.… Read more »
I don’t believe Ryan Poles was seeking revenge but what he was doing was his due diligence and what he thought was in the best interest of the Chicago Bears.
He’s better off as the Chicago GM. I don’t think he would have liked working under a meddling David Tepper in Carolina. That’s got to be a really difficult job for any GM and front office when you have a meddling owner second-guessing all of your decisions.
I must be dreaming, I just thought I read that passing on Anthony Richardson is some kind of unmitigated disaster?
Ha, Just read your first comment, Dr. Melhus… High 5.