Windy City Gridiron
And he did it all by doing exactly what fans usually ask for from their general managers.
In my day-to-day life, I’m an English teacher. I spend a fair amount of time at the start of each semester reminding students that word choice matters and that they cannot assume others will share their definitions. I remind students that they need to be open to the idea that not everyone shares their same standards of judgment. I try to come up with examples all the time that show how two people looking at the same thing might have very different evaluations.
And Ryan Poles just took my job. Or rather, he taught exactly the same lessons with astonishing grace.
He just gave an absolute clinic on how definitions matter, and how dangerous it is to assume that others will share your same standards of judgment. He did this by focusing on the distinction between best player available and favorite player available. He also showed with astonishing clarity that while it is easy for armchair GMs to call for trading down in theory, it takes a special sort of grit to do it in real life. And then he added one more trick, but we’ll get to that later.
Heading into the 2025 NFL Draft, fans seemed to have reached a rough consensus. With a new head coach, a promising sophomore quarterback, and a free agency period that addressed the team’s biggest weaknesses, the goals seemed obvious and attainable. Even in a weak draft, Ryan Poles had an easy task. He needed to get a starter with high upside in the first round, get another pair of starters with the two second-rounders, and fill in the rest of the holes around those picks as best as he could. Most importantly, the draft’s few strengths–at running back and on the defensive line–seemed in tune with Chicago’s needs. Easy.
Despite a ton of fan hope, it is unlikely fan-favorite target Ashton Jeanty was ever really an option, and even if he had been, the cost would likely have been too high to manage while still achieving the other goals fans set out. Jeanty was therefore never the best player available because he really wasn’t available. He was, however, a favorite player that fans wanted to imagine was available.
Instead, Ryan Poles drafted Colston Loveland at #10. To be clear, I was on Team Loveland as early as March. He was my tenth overall prospect in this draft and had the highest rating from me of any offensive player left by the time Chicago drafted. I understand fans who wanted Tyler Warren, or Mykel Williams, or one of the Joshes at left tackle, but I was far from the only person who felt Loveland merited the tenth overall pick, and Loveland matched both the character profile and the team match profile that Poles desired.
By contrast, TreVeyon Henderson, my favorite running back for Chicago, went to the Patriots one spot...
