Ryan Poles made a few things clear during his first meetings with the Chicago media. When it comes to his team-building philosophy, there is no gray area with him. He wants to build the Chicago Bears through the draft. To do that, logic dictates he has as many picks as possible. Conventional wisdom from most organizations that take this approach says you need around 8-10 per year. This presents a problem right off the bat for Poles. Thanks to the endless aggressive moves of his predecessor Ryan Pace, the Bears only have five with just over a month before the 2022 draft.
While one of those moves ended up landing Justin Fields, it doesn’t erase the reality. This team has many roster holes and not enough picks to fill them all. Poles may have no choice but to dabble in free agency more than he’d like. That is unless he has some sort of plan to secure more picks. It is here where lessons can be learned. No team is a better example for getting around aggressive trades than the Los Angeles Rams.
Let us use the 2018 offseason as an example.
Remember in 2016, they made the blockbuster trade to move up for Jared Goff. Then two years later, they traded their 1st round pick for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. They also had no 2nd round pick after sending it to Buffalo for Sammy Watkins. Yet they still ended up with 11 picks when the dust settled by the end of April. Part of this was thanks to some compensatory selections and the craft maneuvering of GM Les Snead. Here is a breakdown of what they did.
- April 27, 2018: Traded 2018 3rd round pick (87th overall) to Raiders for 2018 3rd round pick (89th overall) and 2018 6th round pick (217th overall)
- April 28, 2018: Traded 2018 4th round pick (136th overall) to Panthers for 2018 5th round pick (147th overall) and 2018 6th round pick (197th overall)
- April 28, 2018: Traded Tavon Austin to Cowboys for 2018 6th round pick (192nd overall)
- April 28, 2018: Traded 2018 6th round pick (183rd overall) and 2018 6th round pick (217th overall) to Broncos for 2018 5th round pick (160th overall)
- April 28, 2018: Traded 2018 6th round pick (194th overall) to Falcons for 2018 7th round pick (244th overall) and 2018 7th round pick (256th overall)
That work enabled the Rams to add three more picks to their inventory without sacrificing too much positioning. They still ended up with tackle Joseph Noteboom. While he never became a starter due to the presence of Andrew Whitworth, his presence was essential last season to their championship run in the playoffs. That was also the draft they landed center Brian Allen as well.
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What a fantastic game Joseph Noteboom @jnoteboom70 had in the divisional playoff round thriller against Tampa Bay. His pass blocking was superb and he seems to be getting better with each start at Left Tackle pic.twitter.com/hODuucbNWp
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) January 24, 2022
Ryan Poles can pull this off too
It comes down to two questions he’ll have to answer. Is he comfortable enough with the depth of this draft to move down, and can he work the phones against more experienced GMs to get the best possible deals for the Bears? Remember Snead had been running the Rams organization for six years by that 2018 draft. He was a seasoned pro. Poles is entering his first draft ever next month.
A lot of GMs may prefer just to sit tight and make the picks they have. That is what Pace did in 2015. It is what Phil Emery did in 2012 too. Ryan Poles would need to have profound self-confidence to start wheeling and dealing in his first draft. That said, he has plenty of incentive to do so.
Five picks won’t be enough to reload this roster. He needs more.
Los Angeles understood that their best chance to keep the roster depth intact was by going quantity over quality. So they sacrificed position for picks. One can’t argue with the results.
