Ryan Poles is under the gun right now. He’s spent four offseasons building this Chicago Bears roster almost from scratch. There is nothing to show for it. The team has lost 12 of its last 13 games and is already 0-2 this season, with both losses being against divisional opponents. No Bears team has overcome such a start to make the playoffs. Poles is now 15-38 as GM, the worst in franchise history. People are calling for him to get fired. Unfortunately, the Bears recently handed him a contract extension to line him up with Ben Johnson.
That means barring a shocking reversal, Poles isn’t going anywhere. Fans are already losing hope, knowing he’s going to screw up another draft. However, Sports Mockery insider Jeff Hughes decided to put this idea to bed. He made one thing crystal clear on Twitter recently: Poles no longer calls the shots at Halas Hall.
Les Snead is the Los Angeles Rams’ general manager. He’s held that job since 2012. From 2012 through 2016, he had personnel authority except for 2013 when head coach Jeff Fischer held it. Over that span, Snead had some pretty rough drafts. Some of his 1st or 2nd round choices included Brian Quick, Isaiah Pead, Tavon Austin, Alec Ogletree, and Greg Robinson. If Aaron Donald hadn’t landed in his lap in 2014, there is a strong possibility he might’ve been fired. Once Sean McVay took over as head coach in 2017, personnel authority shifted to him.
Ben Johnson is in a rare position.
Only two head coaches had the final say on personnel throughout Bears history. One was George Halas, who also owned the team. The other was Dave Wannstedt in 1993. That was the year they drafted Curtis Conway 7th overall. He obviously became a good player. However, after that, Wannstedt was stripped of the authority in favor of Rod Graves. Since then, it’s been a strict case of the general manager acquiring players and coaches only offering their preferences.
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That won’t be the case for Ben Johnson. If there is a disagreement between him and Poles, it sounds like the head coach can go with whom he wants. There are examples of head coaches with this kind of authority doing pretty well. Jimmy Johnson built the Dallas Cowboys dynasty in the 1990s. Bill Belichick was the de facto GM for the entirety of the New England Patriots’ dominance from 2001 through 2018. Chuck Noll had the final say on draft picks during his long tenure in Pittsburgh.
Giving coaches control of the roster isn’t always a bad thing.
