One thing that has become apparent with new GM Ryan Poles is he's not shy about saying what he feels. Reports say it was one of the big reasons he won over George McCaskey to get the Chicago Bears job. He isn't mean about it or anything, but he is honest. One of his primary targets in his dressing down of the roster was the offensive line. Apparently, he is not a big fan. Not a surprise considering he played the position himself at Boston College.
You'd think Pole would prefer to keep any comments he has behind closed doors. Something Ryan Pace always did. Nope. If people needed a reminder of just how different the new Bears GM is, they could look to an interview with The Athletic after his opening press conference. When Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns brought up the offensive line to him and what he saw, Poles was...less than flattering.
If anything, he outright called weak and passive.
“It agitates me to see a quarterback get hit and be on the ground — and I watch the five guys and their body language,” Poles told a small group of reporters from The Athletic and The Bigs after his introductory news conference along with new coach Matt Eberflus. “If I see my guy on the ground, I’m running over there, getting him up, making sure he’s clean, ready to go. I don’t know if I saw that enough in the tape that I watched, and that’s critical. And also to protect your guy. If you see something cheap, something dirty, you need to set the tone that that’s not gonna happen, because if you do let it happen once, it’s going to happen over and over and next thing you know, your quarterback is hurt. So that (nastiness) mentality is critical and is something we need to add.”That was a huge criticism of the Bears offensive line throughout most of the season. Too many times, they didn't show much aggression or fight when their quarterback was taking unnecessary hits. They didn't help him off the ground after sacks. It was depressing to watch. The only player that wasn't having any of it was rookie Teven Jenkins who started a fight against the Minnesota Vikings after Justin Fields was hit late out of bounds. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Week-3-Every-Browns-Sack-9-of-Justin-Fields-in-26-6-Win.mp4"][/video] [video width="640" height="360" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Teven-Jenkins.-.mp4"][/video] This raises an important question. Exactly how many members of this front five will be part of the team's future? People were somewhat certain that Cody Whitehair, Sam Mutipher, James Daniels, and Larry Borom all had places on the roster going into the offseason. From the way Poles talks, it feels like the only one who should feel safe is Jenkins. Everybody else is expendable.
