Putting the Bears' House in Order

Where GM Ryan Poles has taken the Bears through two offseasons, as the rebuilding plan enters into a new phase.

Ryan Poles has accomplished a great deal more in two offseasons than come up with the catch phrase "retake the North."

He has shown a real ability to identify problems and achieve solutions based on methods he knows work from past experience in the Kansas City organization. Along the way he has been creative, even seeking out the advice of other GMs in Chicago like the Blackhawks' Kyle Davidson. 

So much of what a GM in the NFL does is based on success in picking useful players out of the draft and what Poles has fully accomplished in this regard won't even really be known in full for a year or so. As they often say, it takes three years to assess a draft's success.

It would be good to give him credit for the coaching staff but no one really knows after one season what kind of a competitor the Bears have in Matt Eberflus because the Year 1 talent level he had to deal with was so low.

An expansion team might have a better roster than what the Bears had last year, as they intentionally filled it with Day 3 draft picks, undrafted free agents, waiver pickups, street free agents and free agents on one-year contracts because they lacked salary cap space or sufficient draft picks.

It was all a part of the plan, but a necessary evil as they changed over and became a younger team. According to ESPN, they had gone from the oldest team in the NFL to fifth youngest at 26.3 years of age by season's end. They'll no doubt be even younger this September when the final roster cutdown is made.

The Bears are entering Phase 2 of the plan now after finally getting a chance to bring in talent with a full draft, one that included a first-round pick, and signing players in free agency who will stick around a few years. In this part, they'll begin to see how competitive they can actually be and we'll know more about Eberflus' as well as Poles' ability to judge coaches.

There is still plenty of work to be done. Poles, for one, has to show he can actually appreciate what a player has done enough to get him a contract extension. 

For now, Poles has had three obvious accomplishments.

3. Water into Wine

Poles started the 2022 offseason with only six draft picks courtesy of former GM Ryan Pace. The previous regime had a tendency to trade away picks, not to mention making bad ones. With only six picks, Poles needed to come up with players because the changes his new coaching staff brought along required totally different types of linemen on both sides of the line of scrimmage and linebackers for defense.

Beyond needing different types of players than before, and lacking cap space courtesy of Pace, Poles simply needed to find a way to fill out a roster.

Faced with this dilemma, Poles turned six draft picks into 11 by making Day 3 of the draft his own and trading back to come up with more selections. He wasn't simply dealing with Day 3 of the draft. It was dealing with Rounds 5-7 because the Bears didn't have a fourth-round pick after (what else?) Pace had traded that away the previous year.

What Poles already knows is he did get was a starting left tackle in Braxton Jones, and that's not something usually found on the third day of the draft. He also found a solid, consistent punter and a backup safety. Dominique Robinson could be an edge rusher, but requires extensive development first.

The other miracle was finding ways to fill roster spots without available cap space. They did it with one-year contracts. In almost every case, they got what you'd expect by signing players to one-year deals. They were players who lasted a year: Nicholas Morrow, Riley Reiff, Michael Schofield, Matthew Adams, Joe Thomas, players of this type. But at least they had roster spots filled with someone who could play in the NFL. It bought them time to reach the year when they could have cash available.

2. The Trade

Owning the first pick in the draft courtesy of Lovie Smith, Poles wanted picks but also wanted a player. He had other teams making offers but the Panthers were willing to give up first-round picks this year and next year, a second-round pick and another second-rounder in 2025 and also received the player Justin Fields needs to prove he should be the quarterback of this regime's future in DJ Moore. He wasn't entirely finished as he also took the ninth pick he got back from Carolina and gave it to Philadelphia for another 2024 pick in Round 4. So the Bears have made their draft, taken Darnell Wright and Tyrique Stevenson because of picks they received this year, but still also have a first-rounder, a second-rounder and a fourth-rounder for the future courtesy of the deal. Instead of trading away future picks like Pace, Poles acquired more. And they also have a legitimate No. 1 receiver for now.

On paper, at least, it looks like a huge return for one pick. Now it's about making the return worthwhile with good selections.

1. The Great Reset

More than anything else, Poles bought the Bears a future.

His great reset of the salary cap accomplished this.

In each of the next three seasons they currently rank in the top seven for salary cap space even after ranking first for this offseason. They'll come down a bit with some upcoming contract extensions, but the real bite into that space won't occur until it's quarterback cash they need. They're still No. 1 for this season with about $27 million in effective cap space according to Overthecap.com.

Poles accomplished this with a painful and necessary removal of all things Pace, including the style for building a team. The Bears were stuck in the rut of failing on draft picks or trading them away, signing free agents and other big contracts and then using dummy years in the future for the purpose of prorating the signing bonuses so they could fit those cash deals under their salary cap.

Poles jetisoned players with big contracts to take back control of the cap. Khalil Mack, Nick Foles, Eddie Goldman and eventually even Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith were among them. In other cases, free agents were allowed to leave who would make too much and didn't fit, like Akiem Hicks, James Daniels and Bilal Nichols.

They could have used Smith, but he wasn't an exact weakside 4-3 system fit and in paying $100 million for an off-ball linebacker they should be able to have this at the very least. It was easily Poles' most controversial cash saver.

The Bears can now build through the draft. They have cap space to bring in occasional free agents to fill gaps. They can afford all of this because the future has been reset thanks to Poles taking the tough step of gutting the roster in order to rebuild it in a fiscally responsible manner closer in talent approximation to systems required by his coaches.

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