Former GM Insists Ryan Poles Will Fix One Of Bears' Biggest Flaws

Ryan Poles comes in as a bit of a surprise becoming the new Chicago Bears GM. At 36-years old, he is actually younger than Ryan Pace was when he took over back in 2015. So the Bears are taking another risk on a young executive who spent his entire career with one organization. One can understand why this would make many people nervous. Yet plenty of people insist this situation is different. For one thing, Poles didn't serve his entire scouting time with the Kansas City Chiefs under one GM like Pace. He worked under three different ones. The first was Scott Pioli, the man who actually hire the former Bears undrafted free agents as a scout back in 2009. The two worked together across four seasons and have shared a relationship ever since. When speaking to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, Pioli revealed Chicago made a great decision. A big reason why comes from one of Poles' biggest strengths as a talent evaluator.

His uncanny knack for recognizing good linemen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNvfyhiRgXU&ab_channel=JacksonKruegerSports When looking back, what Pioli says holds true. In their four seasons together, the Chiefs did a good job at finding quality trench players on both sides of the ball. Pro Bowlers like Rodney Hudson and Dontari Poe. The success only grew as Ryan Poles gained a greater voice in the front office following each promotion. Names like Eric Fisher, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Zach Fulton, Mitch Morse, Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi, Lucas Niang, Creed Humphrey, and Trey Smith have come into their organization via the draft. All had various levels of success with Fisher and Jones becoming Pro Bowlers. They also traded for Orlando Brown Jr. and signed Joe Thuney this past offseason when Poles was executive director of player personnel. So his eye for talent up front works on the veteran market too. This is such a big deal for Chicago because few areas have given the Bears more problems over the past decade than their offensive line. Since 2012, their front five have allowed 35 or more sacks in a season six times. Only one player they've drafted in the past decade has made the Pro Bowl as more than an alternate. That was Kyle Long. This track record can't continue if they want Justin Fields to succeed. It sounds like Poles is somebody who can change that.