Did this draft change your opinion of Ryan Poles?

We close out our roundtable asking for your thoughts on Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles?

We’re wrapping up this five-part post-draft roundtable with your thoughts on the Chicago Bears' general manager.

Here’s today’s topic...

Did this draft change your opinion of Ryan Poles?

Jeff Berckes: Why would it? He’s pretty sound in his approach and clearly works with his coaching staff to acquire players they are excited to work with (did you see Randle El’s excitement after the Burden pick?!). I don’t think he’ll ever be Howie Roseman, but I do think he can be successful when paired with a smart coaching staff. He makes mistakes and he makes good choices, but overall I appreciated how he navigated this draft and this off-season.

Jacob Infante: Not necessarily. I feel like he aced his first two picks, took a swing with Ozzy Trapilo, and added a safe defensive tackle in Shemar Turner. He still has a bit to prove with his Day 3 selections, though, and taking a major consensus reach in Round 4 concerns me a bit. That said, he clearly values draft capital and wants to take multiple swings at the plate, which is the right approach.

Josh Sunderbruch: Sort of? I have this mental image of Ryan Poles as the Jay Cutler of GMs. Yes, he’ll do some great things, but he’ll also make absolutely killer mistakes. This draft did nothing to move me off of that image of him. However, I have to admit that I’m impressed with how he navigated a poor draft class, and even if I don’t like all of the individual choices he made, his track record there suggests he’s actually going to do better in the long run than I’m giving him credit for right now.

Sam Householder: No. I am a fan of what he’s done overall. Sure, there is plenty to criticize, but he seems to have a measured approach to trade-ups and values future picks appropriately, IMO. Turning seven picks going into this year’s draft into eight players and a future pick is a win. I don’t think the board fell their way in a couple spots (top of the second round for sure). But overall, I like what Poles did, and I think he helped change the roster to fit Ben Johnson’s vision.

Mongo Peanut: Not necessarily, no. This felt like a classic Poles draft. I have learned that he is often going to have different approaches and evaluations than what fans and media project for the Bears. Sometimes it works out (see Wright, Braxton Jones, Gordon) and sometimes it doesn’t (see Velus Jones, Pickens). I think the one thing that was tough to watch this year was having players who were seemingly targets get snatched up in front of the Bears. Perhaps Poles would have navigated differently if he had known how pervasive this would be during the draft, but he publicly remains steadfast in his commitment to their board and patience.

TJ Starman: Not really....