Bear Digest

Ryan Poles' 10 Worst Personnel Moves Since Becoming Chicago Bears GM

Ryan Poles seems like a genius at this point following the big 2025 turnaround but this didn't occur without three years of stumbling around. Here are his worst moves ranked.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears GM Ryan Poles looks like a genius now but it only came after a number of mistakes.
Bears GM Ryan Poles looks like a genius now but it only came after a number of mistakes. | Photo: Chicago Bears video

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Chicago Bears

Bears GM Ryan Poles looks like a genius at this point, as long as Ben Johnson is standing alongside.

The impact of losing his second-in-command, Ian Cunningham, is yet to be determined.

After the tremendous leap forward and success in 2025, Poles has not been above making mistakes. Some have been terrible ones as he had to develop and mature as a GM.

Most of those flaws occurred before the current pairing with Johnson, although not all of them.

Here are the worst 10 mistakes made by Poles involving personnel. Probably the worst mistake was hiring and keeping around coach Matt Eberflus a year longer than he should have, but in the end it got them to Johnson as coach.

10. Signing Gerald Everett

This looks worse than the trade for center Ryan Bates or the signing of center Lucas Patrick, basically because it was for more money and the Bears got virtually nothing from it when they needed some production. For $12 million over two years, they got eight catches, 36 yards in one season and then cut him after one season.

9. Trading for Keenan Allen

Giving up a fourth-round pick for a veteran Hall-of-Famer does have merit. They did it with Protector of the Year Joe Thuney. Doing it with the idea of giving Caleb Williams a rookie security blanket does make some sense. Doing it to acquire a player who was going to count $23.1 million against their cap and probably wasn't going to be playing too many more years even if he signed a contract extension didn't make much sense, especially at the receiver position. Signing an extension in Chicago didn't appear to be in the cards here, either. That's a position where there are always old guys looking around for one more pay day and a few more receptions. They could have found that without taking up such a large chunk of their cap. He did make seven TD catches and 70 receptions but his presence may have slowed the development of the DJ Moore-Williams connection.

8. Signing Al-Quadin Muhammad

It's only one player and one year but giving up $10 million to sign Al-Quadin Muhammad looks worse than about any of the silly other moves made for very late draft picks, like the trading for N'Keal Harry or Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. What makes it worse is after he made his one Bears sack with only 10 pressures, he went to Detroit two seasons ago and has 14 sacks, including a career-high 11 last year. They brought him in because he fit the system, they said. Then he didn't. For the Lions now, he has three times the number of sacks against the Bears (3.0) as he had in 16 games for them in 2022.

7. Signing DT Grady Jarrett

Poles brought in a 30-something player at three-technique who had a bad knee injury a few years earlier and paid $43.5 million for three years, a deal constructed so they really can't cut him now going into 2026 unless they want to be weighed down with dead cap space during a year when they need to maximize every dollar of cap space. If Jarrett produces in 2026, then he can bump this one off the negative side of the Bears' charts. That's a big if at age 33.

6. Drafting Velus Jones Jr.

One muff after another was all they got from a third-round pick who didn't know how to run routes correctly and had to convert to running back as a result. They should have known what would happn based on Jones making no contribution at USC before having one decent season at Tennessee. Jones made 12 career receptions, or about 79 less than Jalen Tolbert, who the Bears could have drafted in Round 3. Poles could have traded back and drafted Romeo Doubs, who has 202 catches, or later on in Round 5 taken receiver Khalil Shakir, who has 197 catches. Then he could have devoted that third-round pick to something else. The Rams drafted Kyren Williams two rounds later than the Bears took Jones. That's a real running back and not one they tried to convert from wide receiver because he had no other value after muffing punts.

5. Drafting Zacch Pickens

Taken No. 64 overall, normally that would have been a second-round pick and someone to depend on for the future in the interior of the defensive line. It was actually the first overall pick of Round 3 that year after the Dolphins were penalized and forfeited their first-round pick. And for their 64th pick, the Bears came up with a defensive tackle who never made it to his third season. This was right out of the Phil Emery second-and-third rounds of 2014 when he took Ego Ferguson and Will Sutton. And it was another horrible Poles third-round pick after the Jones pick. They could have taken Rams edge Byron Young in Round 3, and he has made 27  1/2 sacks. They also could have taken edge YaYa Diaby, who has 19 sacks for the Buccaneers. If it had to be a defensive tackle, they could have taken Rams third-round defensive tackle Kobie Turner, who has 24 sacks. That's a very high number of sacks for a player at that position. It definitely wasn't slim "Pickens" on the defensive line for Poles that year in the draft's third round but he just took the wrong guy.

4. Signing Dayo Odeyingbo

This is one made after Johnson came on board. Not only was Odeyingbo practically invisible after getting his three-year, $48 million deal, but then he couldn't turn it around after the slow start because of a torn Achilles. His one sack, four QB hits and six pressures were not what was expected and it's why they are now in the market for help at the end position. Odeyingbo still could come back and make the best of a bad situation but the Bears probably won't get anything out of him for quite a while into 2026 due to the nature of the injury.

3. Signing Tremaine Edmunds

It's not that Edmunds is bad. He makes plays, sometimes makes mistakes, but is a leader who other Bears on defense respect. However, four years and $72 million for a player who is an off-ball linebacker? Matt Eberflus actually poked fun at the idea someone would pay excessively for an off-ball linebacker after the trade of Roquan Smith. And then the Bears turned around and actually did it. Edmunds was put at middle linebacker instead of weakside, one year after he had the ONLY good Pro Football Focus pass coverage grade of his career. He hasn't gotten close to that grade in Chicago. The best he's done in coverage in Chicago is 48th out of 83 linebackers in 2024. He seemed to make progress last year as a weakside instead of playing the middle, but then was injured and didn't get back to his earlier playing level. Instead of signing Edmunds, Poles could have simply drafted Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley. Henley was 10th in coverage in 2024 among all linebackers per PFF, but Poles went this route, and then drafted Pickens with his third-round pick.

2. Signing Nate Davis

The hole in their offensive line at right guard in 2023 was plugged with the signing of the veteran Titans guard who was supposed to be excellent at getting out to lead a wide zone blocking scheme. They paid $30 million for three years. His heart wasn't in it as his mother was ill and died, and then he simply didn't produce before being released in 2024. It was just a sad and unfortunate series of events, the worst being that Davis wasn't very good when he actually did play.

1. Chase Claypool trade

Poles has made some great trades and a few duds. This one was worse than a dud. It exploded in his face. He appeared to be a buffoon by making this trade for a second-round draft pick, considering how poorly Claypool played and how bad his attitude was. No player who stunk it up like Claypool did should be causing a stir but his attitude was actually worse than his production. The thing about it was all the Steelers fans new ahead of time what a bad attitude Claypool had and laughed at the Bears after the move was made.

Think of all the things they could have done with that second-round pick. They could have drafted Tuli Tuipulotu, who has 26 sacks in three seasons. If it had to be a wideout, Rashee Rice and Jayden Reed didn't go until later in Round 2. There are always good players for any position in Round 2. Instead, the Bears got a guy who made 18 catches for 191 yards, then was asked not to come to practice because of his attitude and inept play.

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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.