From what we’ve learned about Ryan Poles as the Chicago Bears’ general manager since 2022, it’s clear that he isn’t what you’d call reckless. He doesn’t make aggressive moves involving draft capital unless he senses a genuinely good deal. Up until this month, his boldest move was sending a 2nd round pick, in the middle of a rebuild, for defensive end Montez Sweat. That turned out to be a good decision. Sweat remains a key member of the Bears’ defensive line. However, Poles outdid himself in a huge way when he flipped two 1st round picks to the Tennessee Titans for Jeffery Simmons.
It was an opportunity the Bears GM felt he couldn’t pass up. The team is surging. They have the look of a Super Bowl contender, with a young quarterback and a top-5 head coach. What they needed was a difference-maker up front, and Simmons is absolutely that. Still, plenty of people became queasy at the thought of giving up two 1st round picks. They remember what that ultimately did to the team with the Jay Cutler and Khalil Mack trades. There is one key difference to keep in mind, though.
Ryan Poles has experience being in this situation.
One thing that was never really talked about with Jerry Angelo and Ryan Pace is that neither man had ever gone through a situation of going through multiple years without a 1st round pick at their previous jobs. Between 2004 and 2014, as a top personnel man in New Orleans, Pace only spent one year without a 1st in that front office. Between 1987 and 2000, Angelo did it three times. By contrast? Poles did it four times between 2016 and 2021 when he was a personnel director with the Chiefs.
Kansas City traded out of the 1st round in 2016. In 2017, they flipped a future 1st round pick to Buffalo to move up for Patrick Mahomes. Then in 2019, they sent another 1st rounder to Seattle for defensive end Frank Clark. If that weren’t enough, they struck again in 2021, sending a 1st to Baltimore for offensive tackle Orlando Brown.
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| Draft Year | Original Pick (#) | What the Chiefs Did | Return / Trade Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | No. 22 overall | Traded to the Buffalo Bills | Combined with 2017 first-round (No. 27) and third-round picks to move up to No. 10 in the 2017 draft to select quarterback Patrick Mahomes. |
| 2019 | No. 29 overall | Traded to the Seattle Seahawks | Acquired edge rusher Frank Clark and a 2019 third-round pick (used to draft defensive tackle Khalen Saunders). |
| 2021 | No. 31 overall | Traded to the Baltimore Ravens | Acquired offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., a 2021 second-round pick (used to draft linebacker Nick Bolton), and a 2022 sixth-round pick (along with other minor pick exchanges). |
How did Kansas City survive that?
This is the vital question to help explain why Ryan Poles felt confident enough to take the swing on Simmons that he did. There are two parts to the answer. One thing they did was make other moves to stockpile additional picks. Among them was flipping cornerback Marcus Peters for a 2nd round pick and getting another 2nd back in the Brown deal. However, what ultimately pulled Kansas City through was their ability to find good players despite the losses.
They traded up from their original 3rd round pick in 2018 to select defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi, who was a key run defender on all three of their Super Bowl teams. They secured safety Juan Thornhill late in the 2nd round of the 2019 draft, who started on two of those teams. Then, with their original 2nd round pick in 2021, they added Pro Bowl center, Creed Humphrey. Just because you don’t have the 1st round pick doesn’t give you the excuse of not drafting well. Poles acknowledged this after the trade.
“We absolutely believe that the draft and bringing in young talent is the way that you sustain success around here. I’m challenging myself and our crew that for the picks that we do have, we have to hit.”
This is true because he lived through this situation before. The Chiefs handled it as well as any team could’ve. The Bears don’t have to hit home runs over the next two years. All they have to do is not strike out.
