The Chicago Bears finally broke through to the playoffs for the first time in five years. They won their first playoff game in 15 years. It feels like the team is trending in the right direction, knocking on the door of a Super Bowl run. However, fans have seen this before. The team has a great season, looks poised for big things, and then withers away the next year. It happened in 1994, 2001, and 2018. Maintaining success is the hardest part for every GM in the business, and Ryan Poles is about to face the test.
He already watched the Washington Commanders completely botch it this year. After reaching the NFC championship last season, they went all in this past spring. They traded for Laremy Tunsil and Deebo Samuel, added several veteran names, and pushed every chip to the center of the table. Then they didn’t even make the playoffs. Now they’re left with the league’s oldest roster and no sense of direction. How can the Bears avoid the same fate? Examining other situations around the league, two organizations offer a roadmap.
They are the New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills.
Ryan Poles should take his lessons from how they avoided long letdowns.
The Saints were a non-entity for most of the 1990s and 2000s but broke through in 2006 on the shoulders of quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton. It was also true of Buffalo in 2017, which hadn’t made the playoffs since 1999. Both managed to stay competitive in the following years and made multiple deep playoff runs. How? Here is a breakdown.
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Keep your 1st round picks
Don’t get in the habit of trading those away. Use them to maintain a steady pipeline of young talent onto the roster. In the three years following their ’06 run, the Saints added Robert Meachem, Sedrick Ellis, and Malcolm Jenkins in the 1st round. All three were key contributors on their Super Bowl team in 2009. Buffalo did even better, nabbing Josh Allen, Tremaine Edmunds, and Ed Oliver in the next two drafts. They would help the Bills reach the conference championship in 2020.
Invest in the trenches
The Bears saw it on Sunday night. Smart teams build through the trenches. That is how you win in the playoffs. New Orleans spent five picks on offensive or defensive linemen in the two drafts after ’06. Two of them became Pro Bowlers on that ’09 team. The Bills spent six picks between 2018 and 2020 on linemen. Three became highly productive starters. Even if you think you’re strong in the trenches, don’t ever stop investing in that area.
Make calculated trades on key players
This one is the toughest. Building exclusively through the draft can work, but it often takes too much time. Ryan Poles and other GMs need to find ways to accelerate the process without breaking the bank. This is done through trades for proven veterans. It’s about finding the right talents and the right fits. New Orleans hit it big when they scored Jonathan Vilma and Jeremy Shockey for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks in 2008. Their leadership was crucial to the Super Bowl run the next year. As for Buffalo, their blockbuster deal for Stefon Diggs, while breaking the first rule, did prove worth it.
The point is, if the right player is available, it’s okay to take a swing, provided it doesn’t mortgage the future.
