One thing that has become a habit for new GM Ryan Poles is winning. He has experienced this for the most part since his college days. He protected Matt Ryan during one of the glory periods of Boston College. Then after a few rough seasons as a scout in Kansas City from 2009 to 2012, he watched the organization morph into the class of the AFC. Two Super Bowl appearances and one Lombardi trophy since 2013. Poles expects to win. He demands it. That is the mentality he wants to instill with the Chicago Bears.
The problem is that mentality left the organization a long time ago. They’ve grown used to disappointment, almost expecting failure. Overcoming that isn’t easy. It takes patience, hard work, and a willingness to make sacrifices. That is where Poles sees the problem. He doesn’t believe previous Bears regimes were willing to wait out the process. They wanted to win as soon as possible and were ready to cut corners to make it happen. Spending too much in free agency. Aggressive trades. It was all part of why they couldn’t sustain success.
Poles told Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic that he aims to avoid such a pitfall.
“When you look at free agency and some of the things that were done by different teams, you want to do some of that as well, but you know that that’s not right for the Chicago Bears right now,” Poles said. “That’s challenging. It’s like other people get to play and you have to do it the old-school way, but I know, again, why are we doing it? Why are we being patient? Why are we looking for a very specific type of player to bring in? It’s to create an atmosphere and a culture and a roster that’s gonna be able to sustain success over a long period of time.”
“I know Chicago’s been through one of those deals where it’s a real quick burst of wins and then it goes back to average or below average, and that’s not acceptable,” he said. “What’s acceptable is sustaining success over a long period of time, and this plan is going to allow us to do that.”
That may sound harsh, but the GM is correct. When looking at the past 20 years of Bears football, it seems like a process stuck on repeat. They’d draft well for a few years, get better, seemingly plateau, and make an aggressive move in a fit of desperation.
- Trading multiple 1st round picks for Jay Cutler after missing the playoffs in 2008
- Signing Julius Peppers to a record-setting deal in 2010
- Massive free agent spending spree in 2013
- Trading multiple 1st round picks in 2018 for Khalil Mack
- Signing Robert Quinn to a massive deal in 2020
Those flurry of moves got tons of attention when they happened. Yet the result was a grand total of three winning seasons and three playoff trips—no Super Bowl championships. In between were some of the worst seasons in Bears history. Not exactly a fair trade.
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Ryan Poles knows quick bursts don’t win championships.
Sure there are exceptions. Some teams have gone from loser to contender and back to a loser in a remarkably short period. The 2016 Atlanta Falcons and 2015 Carolina Panthers are two more recent examples. The common trend for both teams was that they stopped drafting and developing well. Chicago can relate. The same thing happened to them after 2006. Hence the increased reliance on trades and free agency.
Ryan Poles is out to show everybody that he has no intention of falling into the same trap. He will do this the right way. The Bears will be a drafting team. That is where the majority of their talent will come from. Free agency and trades will only come into play when they want, not when needed. That is how top organizations are supposed to operate.
It is time for Chicago to do so as well.
The hard part is accepting that reality. Fans aren’t there yet. They’re still trapped in the mentality of expecting big free agent moves because that is the only way they believe this team can win nowadays. Poles is out to show them otherwise.
