How One Disaster Led Ryan Poles To Develop His Philosophy With Bears

Ryan Poles had a clear plan of action when he took over the Chicago Bears last year. While acquiring talent was the primary goal, he also made it clear one other factor would be a priority. He intended to put a huge emphasis on team culture. That meant not only finding talented players but ones with high character, on and off the field. This approach is undoubtedly a huge reason why the Bears GM elected to pass on Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter in the 1st round last April.

The talent was obvious, but there were way too many character concerns to warrant pulling the trigger. This isn't something Poles decided on a whim. It came from harsh lessons learned years earlier. He told Courtney Cronin of ESPN that his early years with the Kansas City Chiefs involved a lot of mistakes under former GM Scott Pioli. One of the biggest was not taking player and coach character into greater accounting when the team was being built.

It led to an ugly decline that resulted in many losing their jobs.

THE CHIEFS' IMPLOSION didn't dissuade Poles. He credits Pioli with being transparent about what went wrong, emphasizing the importance of building the right culture in the locker room.

"The unique thing when Ryan and I were here at Kansas City together is we worked under three different general managers," Borgonzi said. "So I think we learned a lot of different philosophies, a lot of different processes. I don't know if that happens everywhere, where we were involved in everything, the college scouting, the pro scouting. We were in on contract negotiations. We dealt with agents a lot.

"So for people to think, 'Oh, it's a young guy getting the job [as Bears GM],' he had a lot of experience for those 13 years that he was out here."

Ryan Poles saw what the wrong character decisions could do.

Two that stood out during that era were hiring Todd Haley as head coach and drafted wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin in the 1st round in 2011. Haley was a sharp offensive mind, but it soon became clear he had a contentious attitude, leading to frequent confrontations between himself, players, and even his staff. Baldwin was a talented player. However, it became clear he lacked the necessary drive to get better. He floundered right out of the gate and never amounted to anything in the NFL.

The lack of leadership was obvious at all levels. Once the team started losing in 2011 and 2012, everything fell apart. Those lessons weren't quite learned under the next GM, either. While John Dorsey had the intelligence to hire Andy Reid as head coach, it soon became clear his hands-off approach and poor communication led to some hard feelings inside the organization. That is why he was soon replaced by Brett Veach. This goes a long way in explaining why Ryan Poles targets high-character people and is always forthright in his communication.

It is nice to see he learned those lessons well.