Windy City Gridiron
The temperature on Ryan Poles’ seat is getting hot, is it time to fully clean house?
If you asked Bears fans a few weeks ago if Ryan Poles should return, I believe the majority of fans would have said, “Yes.” But with a losing streak that just won’t stop, a team that looks to be in complete disarray, and no answers in sight, it doesn’t seem like Poles has any answers as to how to stop the bleeding other than to just get to 2025.
There are certainly multiple ways to look at this. First of all, you could look at what he’s done before this season. He landed a huge trade with the Carolina Panthers that has netted him Caleb Williams, DJ Moore, Darnell Wright, and others. That trade will set the foundation of the future of the Chicago Bears for years to come whether Poles is the general manager or not.
You can also see that he’s accumulated more picks by making trades, the previous general manager tended to burn through picks, he’s put the Bears in tremendous shape with the salary cap, he inherited quite a mess in that department, and he’s also added a few solid young players to the roster like Kyler Gordon and Gervon Dexter.
When you look at the decisions one year later when he was entering what he expected to be the team’s breakout season, however, what can you say has been a success?
He needed to support the first overall pick, but instead, the team is on its third offensive coordinator of the season. He paid Keenan Allen over $20 million a year and gave up a draft pick only to have him have the worst season of his career in almost every statistical category. Gerald Everett is a failed signing. Nate Davis had to be released because his effort and performance were so poor. DJ Moore has regressed from 2023. Ryan Bates hasn’t worked. His coach (and Dan Wiederer’s article last week made it clear, that it is his coach) had to be fired because of his horrible Sunday performances. Oh, and we should probably mention the Bears haven’t won a game in over two months.
My answer: I spent my entire Hot Take Tuesday column discussing the failures of the 2024 season and how they fall on Ryan Poles. So we can use that column as the longer version of my answer and you can find that here. But in short, yes he does.
Here’s the biggest reason why. What certainty can you have at this point that Poles is definitely the right man for the job? The Chicago Bears are bringing in a new coach to lead Caleb Williams and this team and if you are Kevin Warren, you have to have confidence that Poles is going to be the right GM to work with this coach and bring the team to the next level.
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