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GM Ryan Poles Backed a Glowing Bears Injury Report With Draft Actions

A progress report on Ozzy Trapilo and other injured Bears was offered up during the draft and underscored through the players selected.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears tackle Ozzy Trapilo celebrates with tight end Cole Kmet after a touchdown against the Eagles.
Bears tackle Ozzy Trapilo celebrates with tight end Cole Kmet after a touchdown against the Eagles. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's always better to have hope, but in the NFL GMs and coaches know it's preferable to be more reserved with comments than effusive about players' medical situations.

Building false hopes can come back to bite you and open the way for eventual blame when something doesn't pan out as expected.

Bears GM Ryan Poles has been around the game long enough to know this, so apparently he must really feel there is a reason to believe some of the injured Bears players are going to contribute this year to a greater extent than many projections. It can explain, in part, why the team took the route they did in free agency and the draft at tackle and edge rusher.

They drafted no tackle. They drafted no edge rusher. Perhaps they'll sign a veteran edge and Poles did leave open that possibility but didn't say they would.

The tackle solution will apparently come from either Braxton Jones, Jedrick Wills, Theo Benedet or Kiran Amegadjie. Actually, at least it will come from Jones, Wills, or Benedet.

Then again, perhaps Ozzy Trapilo does enter the picture at some point after the bad knee injury he suffered. Initial reports about the injury set forth the possibility Trapilo would miss all season, especially because it happened in January.

"O-line wise, we have open competition at tackle, guys that have played a lot of football and we feel confident that those guys will compete and the best guy will win at that left tackle position," Poles said. "And then, obviously, we feel really good about what Ozzy did before he got injured and we like where he's at in his recovery."

The injury Trapilo had was a patellar tendon and because it was during the playofs he is only about 3 1/2 months into his recovery. Either Poles knows something very positive about his starting tackle or he's suddenly willing to make wildly optimistic statements about a key player's health.

It hasn't been his MO to say much about the status of players.

If Trapilo really can recover in time by September, it might be a remarkable recovery.

Poles has continued to maintain they will get edge rushers Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner back even though both suffered the type of injury to keep most players at less than 100% for a year. Yet, during the draft Poles included Turner and Odeyingbo in with Montez Sweat and Austin Booker as edge players who figure into the mix. It's part of the reason they didn't draft edge rush help.

“At the defensive line position, Books (Booker) is coming along, we have Dayo, Sweat, Shemar, feel good about those guys," Poles said.

Mark this injury report

Poles had opportunities on Day 3 of the draft to bring in help. He had the 129th pick and traded it to mov up and draft cornerback Malik Muhammad rather than sit at 129 where Alabama's LT Overton was available. Overton was a larger edge type who could have fit their system. He was drafted by Dallas later that round.

Later, when they had only seventh-round picks remaining, Poles decided to trade up and draft someone at No. 213 overall. They had the opportunity then to draft Ohio State defensive end Caden Curry but the move up was made to draft defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg from Georgia Tech. Curry was then drafted by the Colts with the next pick.

So, Poles really did back what he was saying about expecting those defensive ends back to help because he didn't pursue the position when it was there for the taking.

The positive, glowing outlook regarding these injuries to players is something Bears fans have to be glad to hear, and something Poles could need to be reminded of at some point if the pass rush or pass blocking falters and the injuries remain an issue.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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