There’s no way the Bears wanted to hear what Ryan Poles told them when he interviewed to be general manager in 2022, but they had to know it was true.
He broadsided the team’s current condition and pitched a total rebuild, and considering they had just swept out predecessor Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy, chairman George McCaskey and his inner circle surely saw the same problems.
The predicament for Poles, also a serious candidate for the Giants and Vikings that year, was whether he truly believed the Bears were prepared to endure the losses that would pile up in the short term and give him time to construct it properly.
If they did, Poles had the ambition to take on a task that toppled many before him: Lifting the Bears from decades of disappointment.
“It was going to be a huge challenge, but there’s a legacy part of this,” he told the Sun-Times. “To get the Chicago Bears back on top, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of noise. But if you get that right, that’s legendary stuff.”
Poles is a long way from earning that prestige, but after two brutal seasons, a lot looks right about the Bears as they head into their season opener against the Titans on Sunday at Soldier Field.
They have top-tier talent with a dozen legitimate Pro Bowl candidates. They’re young and in good shape going forward with draft capital and salary-cap space. They have promise at quarterback with rookie Caleb Williams, the slam-dunk No. 1 pick of draft who has drawn comparisons — including from Poles — to Patrick Mahomes.
It’s much better than the understocked, overspent team Poles inherited. As he analyzed the Bears ahead of his interview, demolition was the only option, and predictably, the stripped-down roster went 3-14 his first season and 7-10 the next.
“The only way, instead of really starting over, was just to continue doing what [they were doing], which was kick the can down the road and build off of a house of cards,” Poles said. “And then we’re right back in the same situation.
“Do we want to continue down this [road]? At some point it’s going to collapse. It’s not sustainable. Or are we going to redo the foundation and make it strong to build off of so that we can sustain it and have continuity and keep guys together? It was an easy decision.”
He didn’t have a precise timetable for the Bears being competitive. They were optimistic last season, but Justin Fields never took the next step as a passer, the defense didn’t emerge until it was too late and coach Matt Eberflus was on the hook for three epic meltdowns, two concerning departures from his staff and one humiliation by the Packers.
The overall direction from a personnel standpoint, however, was good. Poles had many key pieces in place and the resources to fill other spots.
Most importantly, his 2023 trade with the Panthers was a turbo boost to the rebuild. The Bears traded down from No. 1 — a pick they secured only with help from former coach Lovie Smith — to No. 9 and receiving a haul of wide receiver DJ Moore, a 2025 first-round pick and two second-rounders.
And as the Panthers plunged to the NFL’s worst record, the answer to Poles’ quarterback problem landed in his lap. He believes Williams is “a generational quarterback.”
He still occasionally lies awake at night marveling at how everything clicked.
“I’ve always felt like with this job, there’s just something — I hate using the word ‘destined,’ but everything has worked out as I expected or better,” Poles said. “Like it was meant to be… I can’t make that stuff up.”
He caught some breaks, but also was well positioned to take advantage of them. Good planning situated the Bears to welcome Williams into an unprecedentedly good setup for a quarterback chosen high in the draft.
Poles still has boxes to check and can address those with a first- and two second-round picks next year, plus what Over The Cap projects to be the eighth-most cap space, but he has supplied enough talent for the defense to be top-10 and the offense to provide everything Williams needs to launch his career.
He’s entrusting all of that to Eberflus, and that choice will be scrutinized sharply this season.
Poles acknowledged firing him would’ve been “popular,” especially if he had replaced him with an offensive-minded head coach, but he was certain that was the wrong call.
His decision to bring him back solidified in November or December on the reasoning that he was confident in Eberflus’ overall operation and expected that if he injected more talent into it, results would follow.
“With the media, it’s just weird how the record is held against Matt, but the progress is given to me,” Poles said. “He’s been in this, coaching his butt off, maximizing the talent that we have. That’s the big thing: Are we maximizing what we have? To me, it was yes.”
That point is debatable, but Poles is the one betting his employment on it.
“Part of this job in this city is you have to be convicted with your decisions,” he said. “At its core, if you have a good process in place and you stick to that, it’s not really what’s popular. It’s what’s right.
“And you’ve gotta be right. That’s what we’re going to be judged on.”
When Eberflus was asked about his approach to the depleted team in 2022, he said, “You have a roster and you coach those guys to the best of your ability… That’s all I know how to do.” It’s simple, but that mentality is what Poles likes about him.
Every move, and non-move, Poles has made has fit his vision of what it’ll take for the Bears to win their first championship since 1985. He’s chasing that glory, too, after experiencing it with the Chiefs.
Behind his desk, on the shelves where he keeps his espresso machine, game balls, custom Nikes and other collectibles, the centerpiece is a portrait of a bear, and directly beneath it is a replica of the Lombardi Trophy the Chiefs captured in Super Bowl LIV when he was assistant director of player personnel.
Poles wasn’t around for Kansas City’s next two titles, and last season his Bears got drubbed 41-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in a reminder of how steep the climb is. No matter how far away that goal has felt, however, he has been fixed on the trophy.
“That’s what we’re after — every day you walk in and see it,” he said. “When you finally get to that place and you actually hold the real one, it does something to you in terms of your obsession with getting back there.”
Even the most hopeful outlook on the Bears doesn’t put them in reach of that quite yet. They should be a playoff team, but it’s another leap from there to winning a Super Bowl.
But at least they seem like they’re pointed that direction. And thanks to Poles’ prudence and good fortune, the quality roster he’s put together this season is only the start.