Ryan Poles is clinging to his job by the fingertips by now. Matt Eberflus is gone, leaving the spotlight squarely on the Chicago Bears GM. His team just got blown out for the second week in a row, leaving many to wonder if this roster is as close to playoff contention as many thought. It looks decidedly overmatched and overcome with some glaring holes. Responsibility for this falls at the feet of Poles. This was his reconstruction effort. After almost three seasons, it has only 14 wins to show for it.
There are plenty of mistakes one could point to that sum up Poles’ failure. However, you don’t really have to dig deep. Three particular draft picks offer the perfect snapshot of this GM.
All of them came in the same round.
Historically, the 3rd round of the draft offers about a 20% hit rate for finding good players and 30-40% for solid backups. It is a round you should be able to find contributors in. Poles has not only failed to do this but failed spectacularly.
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2022 – Velus Jones
The Tennessee wide receiver only had one year of solid offensive production. He was also already 24 years old and about to turn 25. Historically, players like that don’t amount to much in the NFL. Jones was no exception. He suffered from constant ball security issues, from fumbles to muffed kicks and dropped passes. Poles even had a chance to trade him this off-season and turned it down. Jones finished with 12 catches for 135 yards and a TD in 28 games
2023 – Zacch Pickens
This pick was already puzzling because the Bears had drafted a defensive tackle (Gervon Dexter) in the previous round. That doesn’t include the fact Pickens was never overly productive in college. Meanwhile the team had glaring needs at edge rusher and wider receiver. Tank Dell, Byron Young, and Josh Downs were all available. Pickens has a half-sack in 25 games.
2024 – Kiran Amegadjie
This one is probably the most arrogant. Poles was so confident (delusional?) about the offensive line, that he felt comfortable taking a project tackle from a smaller school (Yale) who was coming off a season-ending injury. Then he gets his first start against Minnesota and is completely overmatched. It hammered home just how useless that pick was. The fact Poles did it in a draft where he only had five picks makes it even worse.
Ryan Poles suffers from the same ego his predecessor did.
He has a horrible tendency to like drafting projects. These are players with athletic upside who could become something better if they polish their game. Unfortunately, it would be best if you had good coaching for something like that to have a decent chance of succeeding. This goes right back to Poles’ decision to hire Matt Eberflus, who was clearly not equal to the task. Say what you want about Jerry Angelo, but at least he typically took experienced and productive players in college in the 3rd round.
Whenever Ryan Poles loses his job, people will study what went wrong. Most will look at the Eberflus hire, the Chase Claypool trade, and the Nate Davis signing as clear indicators. However, his run of complete ineptitude in the 3rd round of the draft offers a sharper picture of his deficiencies as a talent evaluator. Too often, he ignores common NFL red flags due to a steadfast belief in their “character” and the abilities of his coaching staff. That speaks to a dangerous naivete regarding his job as a GM.
