One of the prevailing comments among people inside the NFL about Ryan Poles was his intelligence. All of them said he was really smart. That shouldn’t be a surprise. He attended Boston College, which many consider among the best in the country when it comes to education. Combine that with a relentless work ethic, and it’s little wonder Poles took to scouting so well after his playing days ended. From 2009 onward, his education continued under multiple highly-successful executives, including Scott Pioli, John Dorsey, and Brett Veach.
He learned from them the value of being open to different philosophies. There is no one right away to evaluate players. The process is also far more complex than many believe. Finding good players is difficult. It takes a dedicated and relentless approach. Poles provided a window into how detailed (insane?) his process is during an interview with Albert Breer of The MMQB. It starts with keeping a log book of games every coach and scout attends and when.
Then he revealed a little trick he stole from baseball.
And keeping track of who’s watching what on each of the potential top picks is an important piece of this, too, with Poles keeping a log on which games coaches and scouts have watched on each player, so the Bears can be as complete and thorough as possible.
“They talk a lot about that in baseball scouting, that’s a big deal,” Poles says. “Obviously it’s a lot more games, but if you get a guy in a slump, a four-week slump, and the other guy sees him when he’s hot, your grades might be completely different because of when your exposure was. And then guys develop. There are a couple guys that are 20 years old in this draft. I saw a 2003 birth date, so what he was like in September vs. in December?”
Ryan Poles is leaving nothing to chance.
He talks about wanting to do things the right way. There will be no cutting corners under his watch. When the draft rolls around, the Bears will be well-prepared. His 2022 approach exhibited his confidence in this strategy. He didn’t have a 1st round pick and traded back multiple times in the 5th round on Day 3. Yet he still managed to land three starters in Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, and Braxton Jones. It explains why he isn’t perturbed by the idea of trading down from #1 overall. If he and his staff do the work properly, they will find good players.
Say this for Ryan Poles. He has a particular way of wanting to do things. There is no laid-back atmosphere at Halas Hall. Everybody is expected to work. Everybody is expected to be on top of things. Himself included. The Bears will know everything there is to know about these prospects. If they get picks wrong, it won’t be because they didn’t do their homework. That was often a problem previous GMs had in this city.
Poles is determined not to lose out on great players because of laziness.
A person who seeks out experts and tries to learn from them is not a “know it all”. Instead, that person is constantly striving to learn and improve. If that’s Poles I’m glad we have him.
not sure I’d give Boston College props for intelligence… They gave A- hole- C a degree in economics
Sam K, I disagree with your Flus opinion. Give him next season. He probably only had 5 or 6 players that might have started on any other team and he had them competing in almost every game except The Jets game, the Bills game and the Lions game. They almost beat the Eagles with 10% of the talent. With Flus, there is no longer delay of game penalties and they seem ready to play. I agree that he may not be good in evaluating what players to bring over from Indy, but I think he is going to be a… Read more »
Reminds me of a scout a few years back in a different sport they called, “the Sleuth”. That guy had an obnoxious personality but he certainly knew how to scout players.
I like Poles as well … but we truly won’t know how good he is as GM until after another offseason or two.
Poles definitely better than Pace, Angelo and Emery.