Chiefs Executive First Reported Bears GM Finalist

Ryan Poles was once signed by the Bears as a player and now is the first reported finalist reported for the GM job.

The Bears had a coach who came from the Kansas City Chiefs organization and a GM whose first name was Ryan and his last name was one syllable starting with the letter "P".

They fired Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace and now for GM they are seriously considering a new GM who comes from the Kansas City organization whose first name is Ryan and his last name is one syllable starting with the letter "P".

Karma? Whatever, it would be hard to make this up. To top it off, the Bears actually  signed him at one time as a player.

The Bears have a first finalist for GM in Kansas City Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles. He is third on their personnel chart under GM Brett Veach and assistant GM Mike Borgonzi. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Poles as a finalist early Saturday.

The Bears must be impressed because the committee just spoke to Poles on Friday, the day they interviewed Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier for head coach. It's the same approach they used with naming their only current coaching finalist, Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.

Poles is 36 years old and has been in the organization since 2009 working under three GMs—Scott Pioli, John Dorsey and now Veach. He was named assistant director of player personnel in 2018 and last year given the title of executive director of player personnel. He started as a scouting assistant and then was college scouting coordinator from 2010-2016.

The Giants had Poles as a finalist for their GM job before hiring Joe Schoen on Friday, and last year he was a finalist for Carolina's GM job before Scott Fritterer got it. He also is getting a second interview for the Vikings job. He is one of only two known finalists for the Vikings job and the other, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, also interviewed in Chicago.

As a player, Poles was an offensive lineman for Boston College when Matt Ryan was their quarterback. The irony here is the Bears actually signed Poles after college as an undrafted free agent offensive lineman in 2008 when Lovie Smith was coach and Jerry Angelo the GM, but he did not make their team.

The only second interview granted until now was for head coach and it went to Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. There is only one other GM candidate currently reported to be scheduled for an interview, and that's Colts director of college scouting Morocco Brown on Monday. 

Brown was the Bears assistant director of pro personnel from 2001-2007 when current Colts GM Chris Ballard was working in personnel for the Bears.

The Bears are scheduled to interview Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn on Saturday for head coach, and then talk Tuesday with Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. 

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