Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus See Bears Drastically Upgraded

From Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze to Kiran Amegadjie, Tory Taylor and Austin Booker, the Bears feel a limited draft in terms of numbers still boosted the roster.

Matt Eberflus and Ryan Poles meet the media after Round 5 of the draft on Saturday. / Gene Chamberlain Photo / BearDigest

The Bears took a circuitous route to address defensive weaknesses in Saturday's final day of the draft.

It was a route taking them completely out of the 2024 draft and then back into it, but they eventually got there and it allowed both GM Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus to emerge from the weekend with a positive view of the team's outlook heading into a critical year.

"We understand where we are and where we came from, and I'll just go back to one day at a time," Poles said after the fifth round ended and before his attention went to undrafted free agents. "Now it's about putting the football team together and the guys coming together, and the guys coming together in terms of their relationships and learning the scheme and let's get to work."

The way they got there Saturday seemed questionable. For the second straight round, they passed on the chance for defensive line help in favor of their draft board. But the board had a player on it who didn't help either offense or defense specifically.

It was punter Tory Taylor, the highly touted Aussie style booter from Iowa.

"Tory is a weapon for the whole football team." Eberflus said.

They went through a 2023 when they were 30th in limiting gains on punt returns and some of it had to do with 2022 seventh-rounder Trenton Gill's inconsistency.

Taylor has a booming leg.

BEARS CREATE EXTRA PICK TO DRAFT EDGE RUSHER AUSTIN BOOKER

"You can flip the field on those," Eberflus said. "The punt and pins are huge, and this guy is a big talent. So we're excited to have him."

His average at Iowa was 48.6 but it doesn't tell the tale of 39 punts dead inside the 20, highest in the nation.

Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles talks with ESPN's Rece Davis about the team's draft, which featured selecting Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. 🏈🐻 #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/Fs4XhUROAA

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 27, 2024

"One of the best punters I’ve ever seen, just in terms of his placement as well as his leg strength to be able to flip the field," Poles added.

An effective punter can help the defense greatly by leaving opposing offenses with longer fields to travel, so in a sense they did greatly help their defense. Anything that can help in the field position war can bolster the offense.

Then Poles appeared done. He'd spent his last pick on a punter, but he wasn't done yet. Taking a fourth-round pick they have for next year, he offered it to Buffalo for the same 144th spot they had vacated when they traded with the Bills for guard/center Ryan Bates. The Bills took the fourth-rounder in 2024 for this year's 144th in Round 5. The Bears then drafted Kansas edge rusher Austin Booker. Then their work was actually done in Round 5, with 2 1/2 rounds still to go.

"Great job by Ryan trading back into it and getting him," Eberflus said of he 21-year-old Kansas player. "He's a guy that's got a lot of upside. He's long, he's fast, he's got a lot of burst to close. You can definitely see that.

RYAN POLES HAS OFFICIALLY GOT AN A+ DRAFT.

BEARS SELECT TORT TAYLOR AT PICK #122!!!!!

LETS GO!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/ctez3K58Sj

— Just Another Year Chicago: Bears (@OfficialJAYCHI) April 27, 2024

"And he plays an aggressive style, and we're excited to have him too."

The weekend gave Eberflus more defensive depth but also offensive line depth with third-rounder Kiran Amegadjie, the Hinsdale Central product who when drafted had talked about meeting Eberflus and telling him he would be drafted by the Bears in the future.

The meeting happened while Eberflus was golfing at Kemper Lakes.

"So I was making the turn, and he's standing there," Eberflus said. "He says, 'Coach, how you doing?' I said, 'Yeah, how you doing?'

"Great looking guy, right? Lean, long, fast for his position, great feet. And he said, 'Hey, you're going to end up drafting me next year.' And I said, 'OK, we'll take a look at you,' because I hadn’t seen him on film yet. So it came true. How crazy is that?"

First-round pick Rome Odunze had a little less serendiptious route to the Bears. Poles went out to scout the Apple Cup game, between Washington and Washington State. He saw a player who fit Chicago's conditions.

"I think he had 120 yards, but to see the player make plays like that, I think it was rainy, cold, and just out there making plays for his team," Poles said. "It was a really tight game. They actually did a reverse, a jet sweep on a fourth-and-one, and they put the ball in his hands and got it done, so that was cool."

Of course, the pick at No. 1 overall of Caleb Williams is supposed to be the triggering point for a complete offense instead of one too consumed by running it.

"I think it's going to be tough to defend, starting with practice," Eberflus said. "We’ve gotta defend those guys in practice, which I think is going to be really, for our skillset on both sides of the ball.

"Because if you look at the receiving corps, they're all different. The halfbacks are all different. The tight ends are different. They're different skillset. So I think that's a credit to Ryan to be able to bring those guys together, acquire those guys, and I think it's going to be very difficult to defend."

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