Bear Digest

What Ryan Poles' reported contract terms say about team's future

Analysis: A sourced ESPN report revealing contract length for Ryan Poles makes for an easier flow for the future, whichever way the 2025 season unfolds.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears GM Ryan Poles (left) appears to have time to prove himself after Ben Johnson's hiring, according to reported contract terms.
Bears GM Ryan Poles (left) appears to have time to prove himself after Ben Johnson's hiring, according to reported contract terms. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

There are two types of alignments between a GM and coach.

One is philosophical. The other is on paper, in terms of their actual contracts.

It appeared from Day 1 that Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles have made a good connection as former Boston College graduate-assistant coaches. The genuine wide smile on Poles' face throughout Johnson's first press conference and his own description of their first meeting made it clear he is at ease.

Poles looked like a different person than the one who wore an anxious, worried expression throughout the presser announcing Matt Eberflus' firing.

"Actually, we found out that he worked in a small little cubicle that I did when I was at Boston College just a year after, which is kind of crazy to think about," Poles said. "But, yeah, a lot of our friends, a lot of people that we trust connected both of us. And then when we got on the call and spent time with each other, there was just a vibe to it that was awesome."

However, the answer to how long Ryan Poles' contract actually is has been elusive information since 2022. So it was impossible to determine alignment for the future with Johnson.

In an in-depth look at the Johnson hiring for ESPN.com by Courtney Cronin, the numbers are revealed. Citing a "team source with knowledge of the situation," Cronin wrote Johnson signed a five-year contract and Poles' contract runs through the 2026 season.

So this 2025 season is not the last year for Poles' contract, as some previous reports have suggested.

The report says the "expectation" is Poles will receive an extension so he would then be in perfect alignment with Johnson.

The other fun revelation is Johnson's widely reported $13 million a year is $7 million more than what Eberflus received.

The importance of the two years left for Poles is he has time to make clear the talent level he supplied can turn around the team with good coaching. What's more important is when he will get this extension to be in full alignment.

Being signed through 2026 gives him sufficient time to show he can work well with Johnson, who currently is the golden boy wearing the halo at Halas Hall. Poles once enjoyed this luxury but a 15-36 record in three seasons tends to change opinions or at least lead to questions.

Poles made the wrong head coaching choice first. The Johnson hire gives him this season to show there is talent at Halas Hall and it merely hasn't been coached well. It also gives him a free agency period and a draft to show he can add to this talent.

If the Bears go on into the fall before giving the extension, it represents some desire to need more proof. This reflects wise prudence.

If ownership makes the contract extension this offseason, then they apparently are firmly in Poles' corner without needing extra proof.

If they wait and there is a problem with the two working together in the draft or free agency, or if embarrassing losses continue early in this transition season, it would be very easy for the Bears to simply let Poles go with a year left on his deal and wish him well. Poles would need some measures of success in 2025.

This is all better for Poles than guesses saying he had a four-year deal. If those had been accurate, he'd be hoping for a new deal now or might already be out the door.

If Bears management/ownership rushes right in with an extension immediately after the draft this offseason without needing to see much on paper, consider the franchise no better off than before they fired Eberflus.

That's because it would show they're living in a state of denial about 2024. They're blaming it all on Eberflus and his staff without taking the good, long look the Poles contract affords them.

The lessons of the 2024 disaster need to be remembered, not quickly dismissed as the fault of one failed coach.

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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.