Bears GM Says He Needs Time for QB Study

The Bears are in the pole position again like last year at the NFL Scouting Combine, or is it the Poles position?

"My phone won't stop," Bears GM Ryan Poles told reporters at the combine.

Poles is going to be busier this week even than he has been already this offseason but on Tuesday painted a much different picture of the situation facing the Bears atop the draft at this particular moment than the frenzy of media reports describing the possible trade status of either quarterback Caleb Williams or Justin Fields.

Poles insisted at the combine that the team hasn't had serious trade talk yet and is not on the verge of announcing a big move one way or other. Instead, he needs more time to gain as much information on Williams, Drake Maye and all the quarterbacks available at the combine before they make a trade of either the first pick or Fields.

"Contrary to reports out there, I have no master plan to present to everyone today," Poles said.

Then again, it could all be a ruse and they're going to make a trade of some kind at quarterback tomorrow.

This is, as they say, lying season.

"It starts slow," Poles said. "When we were at the Senior Bowl I know people were kind of poking around. I haven't had, like, big-time conversations with anyone. But eveyrone wants to take a temperature of what's going on."

Poles does respect the process and said he needs to get to know the young quarterbacks through interviews and all the background research they're doing before a move. Of course, that could change if they got hit with a ridiculous "Godfather" type of offer.

"Right now it's like 100 different scenarios that you go down and try to plot out and you're forecasting forward to see what's going to work out and probabilities and things like that," Poles told reporters at the combine. "But at the end of the day the human being part, getting to know someone, getting to know a number of people, it's really going to determine that out.

"There's going to be options that pop up all the time that you don't see coming. I think I said last year, like, soemthing will happen at some point in the next couple of months that no one expects. So you've got to be on your toes for that so the picture will change as we go."

The unexpected can be offers like they had last year when they moved down from No. 1 to No. 9.

"I would say our approach is exactly the same in terms of we've got to look at every option and determine what is best for our team," Poles said. "Obviously we chose to trade back last year. And I think that helped out our team a lot. So again, we'll do a deep dive and see how it plays out."

While Poles would like to see the process play out, he also sees the need to be fair to Fields because he is the one left hanging in the wind.

"I would love to know as soon as possible, I mean, I would love to know but I know that's not how the process works," Poles said. "Sure, before free agency (March 13) would be good but like I said, also taking if we were to do something with Justin, like, I would want to do right by him."

There is no target for teams to hit in a deal offe before he would trade down, or at least none Poles wants to reveal now.

"It's hard to say right now but it's got to help our organization signficantly to move around because we saw what it did last year," Poles said. "And I'm looking for that type of return to continue to help our football team."

Last year it let the Bears have DJ Moore, draft Darnell Wright and draft Tyrique Stevenson.

It set them up with the chance this year at Williams or to trade back for even more picks.

Everyone will simply have to sit and wait until Poles gets to know the quarterback prospects better, although he admitted they've been doing thorough background checking. Sources say they have talked to family members and teammates of Williams so far. They'll learn more about him this week.

"It's time on task," Poles said.

Everyone will simply have to wait for that time to elapse while they perform the task.

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