The Chicago Bears paid a premium for Jeffery Simmons. The All-Pro defensive tackle cost them two 1st round picks, with a late-round pick swap (4th for a 5th). General manager Ryan Poles felt the time to strike was now. The Bears have their young quarterback, Caleb Williams, and an excellent coaching staff led by Ben Johnson. If they could add a true difference-maker on defense, they might put themselves in position to compete for a championship. Still, many people couldn’t get past the price tag.
Giving up two 1sts makes it feel like a team is mortgaging the future for the present. Poles was asked about that when he met with the media a day after the trade took place. He made it crystal clear that this is not an indication that the Bears have stopped being draft-focused. This was merely an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.
“I know it’s kind of a joke that goes around, like, ‘F them picks is like a big thing.’ That’s really not what we’re about. I know it took a lot to get this done, but we absolutely believe that the draft and bringing in young talent is a way to sustain success around here. I’m challenging myself and our crew that for the picks we do have, we have to hit. We have to be great with our undrafted free agent process. And whatever tier of free agency we’re working in, which will have constraints, we got to hit there too. We got a great track record. It continues to get better every year. So, I got a lot of faith that we’ll be able to get that done and sustain success.”
Adding to this is Simmons’ contract. Since Tennessee already paid most of his bonus money, the Bears actually acquire a deal that is very cap friendly. Lastly, he feels the good job the team has done assembling a young core of talent from previous drafts enabled them to take this swing.
Ryan Poles has operated without a 1st round pick before.
His first draft with the team in 2022 saw him do that. His predecessor, Ryan Pace, had flipped that pick to New York for Justin Fields. All things considered, Poles handled the challenge fairly well. To compensate for not having that pick, he made several moves to accumulate extra draft capital. He sent Khalil Mack to Los Angeles for 2nd and 6th round picks. Then, in the draft itself, he moved down four separate times to add 4 extra picks. It worked out pretty well. The Bears landed Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, Braxton Jones, and Elijah Hicks in that draft.
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This would explain why Ryan Poles is confident he can keep the roster supplied with young talent despite having no 1st rounders. He certainly has a much better coaching staff to help develop it under Ben Johnson. One thing that we can be certain of from Poles’ comments is that he probably isn’t going to sit on 5 draft picks next year. He’ll search for ways to add more, be it flipping a player on the roster elsewhere or moving around during the draft itself. We’ve already seen him do it.
Poles just has not to do what Pace did.
Remember, Pace did the same thing 8 years ago when the Bears traded for Khalil Mack. While the player himself was great, the team couldn’t sustain any success. Part of the reason was the poor draft operation Pace did in those two years without 1st rounders. He sacrificed a 2nd rounder in 2019 to get Anthony Miller in 2018. While the Bears did end up with David Montgomery in that ’19 class, the rest was a bust. Had they kept the 2nd rounder, they would’ve had a shot at names like DK Metcalf and Zach Allen. Pace did recover somewhat in 2020 with the selections of Jaylon Johnson and Cole Kmet, but it couldn’t cover up the team’s quarterback woes.
Poles knows he has that part of the equation figured out with Caleb Williams. He doesn’t have to hit home runs in the next two drafts. All he has to do is not completely fumble them. Add some quality young players who can become starters and don’t give away any more draft picks in reckless trades. Poles is smart enough to know the challenge in front of him. Don’t expect him to lose sight of his identity.
