General manager Ryan Poles is not bad. He’s also not what you would call good. To date, his work on the Chicago Bears’ roster can best be called a mixed bag. He’s done very well on the offensive side, headlined by Darnell Wright, Joe Thuney, Caleb Williams, D’Andre Swift, Colston Loveland, and Luther Burden. On the other hand, his work on defense leaves much to be desired. None of his most prominent draft picks can be considered core members of the roster. So why is it like this? One issue that hasn’t really been touched on as he moves through his fifth season with the team is how he’s built his front office.
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune wrote a column recently about head coach Ben Johnson. In it, he breaks down how he brought his coaching staff together. Most notably, the deliberate way he wanted to build it.
A primary theme at the outset of the offseason was that the Bears would coach better in 2026. Coaches always say if a player isn’t getting better, he’s getting worse. It stands to reason they can be held to a similar measuring system.
So much time was invested last year in learning one another and installing systems on both sides of the ball. Johnson was intentional in forming his staff. He didn’t want to fill it with only people he had worked with. He sought perspectives and ideas from coaches from different backgrounds and varied coaching trees.
Johnson brought in several coaches he had never worked with before. That is because he respected their reputations and the value they could bring to the table that he might not have thought of. Now, when you look at how Poles built his front office, the juxtaposition is stark. He pretty much took the opposite approach.
Ryan Poles brought in friends and familiar faces.
That was evident from the very beginning. His first major addition was Ian Cunningham, one of Ryan Poles’ best friends in the scouting community. Then he brought Trey Koziol in as co-director of player personnel. Poles, of course, worked with him for years in Kansas City. Not once did the Bears GM bring in an outside voice unaffiliated with him. The only other notable move was promoting Jeff King to co-director. He was already with the team before Poles arrived. One can’t help but question this approach.
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Bringing in people you know makes sense in one aspect. It means you and they likely share the same vision on how to build a roster and what kind of players to seek. However, it also comes with one major drawback. Your friends are less likely to tell you no when you become zeroed in on certain players. Having that outsider voice can be so crucial in those situations, pointing you in a direction you may not have looked hard enough. Ryan Pace, of all people, took this approach by bringing in Joe Douglas in 2016.
He was said to be the loudest voice in pushing the Bears to draft both Cody Whitehair and Jordan Howard.
Poles stubbornly remains unwilling to seek outside opinions.
He had a big opportunity to do so after Cunningham left for Atlanta to become their general manager. Instead, the Bears simply promoted from within. King took over as assistant GM, and Koziol became senior director of player personnel. The team has not brought in a notable outside voice since D.J. Hord in 2024, and that was as a pro scout. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles lured Douglas to their front office in 2025 after he was fired as the Jets’ GM. This year, they brought in another former Jets GM, Mike Maccagnan.
Is it a coincidence that the Eagles have consistently been one of the best drafting teams for the past several years? Their GM, Howie Roseman, never hesitates to bring in fresh faces with proven track records. Whatever it takes to improve the team’s scouting process. If Johnson learned the lesson from the moment he took over as head coach, why can’t Poles do the same?
