Ryan Poles has put together a promising roster on paper for the Chicago Bears. Unfortunately, football is a violent sport. Injuries happen. The hope is they don’t pile up so much that it ruins your season. The GM had to make two tough decisions on Tuesday. It starts with Terell Smith. Hopes were high that the young cornerback would be the team’s fourth option in the secondary behind Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, and Tyrique Stevenson. He’d been having a great training camp. Then, a nasty-looking moment against Buffalo in the preseason saw him get carted off. It has now been revealed that he suffered a torn patella tendon. He is done for the year.

That wasn’t all, though. It was also reported that Deion Hankins, the Bears’ undrafted rookie running back, suffered quad and shoulder injuries in that same game. He, too, is done for the season. With Roschon Johnson still out with a foot injury, Poles was forced to find reinforcements on the free agent market. The Bears added veteran Royce Freeman, a former 3rd round pick from Denver who’s bounced around the league over the past few years. He has a strong, tough running style that fits head coach Ben Johnson’s aesthetic.

Ryan Poles has some interesting decisions ahead.

Right now, the running back position still seems straightforward. D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai are locks. Johnson should be if the injury isn’t serious. One can safely assume Travis Homer gets the nod for his special teams prowess. Maybe Freeman can change that, but he may not have enough time. His best hope is probably angling for the practice squad. The Smith injury is more problematic. It leaves the bottom half of the depth chart at cornerback less certain. Josh Blackwell is probably in due to his special teams ability. Nahshon Wright is a veteran who has looked good in camp and the preseason. That leaves one spot left with Tre Flower, Nick McCloud, and 5th round pick Zah Frazier all realistic options. Not an envious position for Ryan Poles to be in.

The Chicago Bears have navigated their contract issues very well this offseason. Every major deal they had to get done was handled without any controversy. Most people felt GM Ryan Poles was done with any further work until extension discussions later in the season. They were mistaken. It turns out the Bears had been working on another deal quietly for weeks. Marc Carman of CHGO revealed that the team had reached a two-year contract extension with backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. It is worth $10 million and could go up to $16 million with incentives.

This is a shocking move for multiple reasons. For one, some felt Case Keenum was a likely choice for the #2 spot on the depth chart because of his experience. However, Bagent has played so well in training camp and the preseason that such a move didn’t make sense. His contract expires after this season. One would think the Bears would either trade him or he’d prefer to hit free agency in hopes of chasing a starting job. This decision suggests Bagent is happy where he is, getting a chance to learn under Ben Johnson. The Bears reward him with a nice deal and secure stability at the most important position.

The Chicago Bears also maintain some leverage for the future.

Keeping Bagent for another two years lets the window for a possible trade stay open down the line. While there is no reason to think the Chicago Bears will entertain the idea, every team has a price. Bagent has plenty of fans around the NFL. There has been legitimate trade buzz percolating. This decision to extend him hints at a team that knew what they had and wanted to make sure nobody else stole the march on them. Maybe someone comes around with a ridiculous offer later on. Philadelphia once traded Kevin Kolb for a Pro Bowl cornerback and a 2nd round pick. Anything is possible. As things stand, it sounds like the team wants to make sure he’s in that locker room for a long time.

Make no mistake. The NFL is filled with a lot of unruly people. There are personal rivalries everywhere across the league, players who dislike or even outright hate each other. That is the byproduct of playing a violent sport. However, it creates a misconception. For so much animosity, there is also a ton of camaraderie. More than a few players love football so much that they go out of their way to help grow the game. They often do this by working with the next generations to become better, even if those younger guys don’t even play for the same team. That is what happened with Austin Booker last week.

The Chicago Bears hosted the Buffalo Bills for a joint practice last Friday. It was a spirited affair with both sides showing plenty of intensity. It seems Booker caught the attention of one of Buffalo’s best players. Dion Dawkins is a four-time Pro Bowler and one of the best left tackles in the league. He couldn’t help but notice Booker during drills. So he decided to take the Bears’ edge rusher aside to offer advice and encouragement. Cameras for HBO’s Hard Knocks caught the exchange.

It is tremendous stuff.

Dawkins recognized Austin Booker is unique among Bears edge rushers.

Most of their key names, like Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo, fit the same category. They win with overwhelming power and length. Austin Booker is different. While he is long, his body mass doesn’t carry the necessary strength to play the same way those other guys do. He is more explosive and athletic, able to win with speed and quickness. Dawkins saw immediately how valuable that could be to the Bears’ fortunes this season. Every defense needs somebody like that. Booker must’ve impressed the star tackle during drills. He could become one of the league’s more productive pass rushers if nurtured properly. That will lead to big money down the line, which is great for him and those who come later. Dawkins feels it is his responsibility to help, even if they don’t share the same uniform—just great stuff from an outstanding player and person.

Running back was already a question mark for the Chicago Bears going into this training camp. Things haven’t gotten better. While D'Andre Swift remains the unquestioned starter, the depth behind him has taken a considerable hit. Roschon Johnson still hasn’t returned from a foot injury suffered over a week ago. Kyle Monangai didn’t play in the preseason game against Buffalo due to an undisclosed injury sustained in the joint practice. Worse still, both Deion Hankins and Travis Homer are hurt as well. The Bears already had to sign Brittain Brown as an emergency free agent.

Now they might be considering another move. The NFL transaction wire revealed that Chicago had three running backs in for a tryout on Tuesday.

• Royce Freeman
• Kylin James
• Dillon Johnson

By far the most interesting name of the bunch is Freeman. A former 3rd round pick, he had a decent run in Denver, averaging 4.0 yards per carry. Unfortunately, he never managed to claim the starting role. Since then, he’s bounced around the league as a part-time back but didn’t play last season. James was a highly productive college back for Central Arkansas and UNLV. Johnson had an outstanding 2023 season for Washington, scoring 16 touchdowns, but went undrafted and hasn’t played in any NFL games.

The Chicago Bears need bodies for the preseason finale.

Right now, there is no reason to think their top trio of Swift, Monangai, and Johnson will miss the regular season opener. Homer is also a shoo-in because of his ability to play special teams. Any move the Chicago Bears make is about finding depth and somebody who can log snaps in practice and the preseason finale against Kansas City. From a pure fit perspective, Freeman is the name to watch. He has a good mix of strength, contact balance, and vision that would fit well in Ben Johnson’s offense. Speed isn’t his thing, but he’s shown he can be reliable in this type of offense. If nothing else, it will get his name back out there and the Bears might have another option for the practice squad.

One thing about Ryan Poles is that he’s careful with his words. He is smart enough to know what he says matters, especially in the social media age. Maintaining that control while still providing honest answers about the Chicago Bears can’t be easy. It is one of the things that makes the young GM easy to respect. That said, he is human. There is no question he has personal opinions on what went wrong with the Bears last season. Many understandably blame head coach Matt Eberflus for failing to hold himself or players accountable.

However, Poles seemed frustrated most by the plan to develop Caleb Williams. Let’s remember that the GM had nothing bad to say about the former head coach after firing him last November. He merely stated that it didn’t work out. After watching Ben Johnson work with the young quarterback a few months later, he is more convinced than ever that Eberflus took the wrong approach. He explained this thinking to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.

His comments were as close to open criticism as you’ll ever see.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles acknowledged the philosophical changes under Johnson in a diplomatic way. Poles classified Johnson’s coaching of Williams as “relentless, especially with fine-tuning the nuances of the position.”

“Before it was a little bit more, ‘How can we just bridge him to this first year?‘” Poles said. “This [season] is like, ‘We have to set your foundation, and you don’t really have a choice.’ It’s tough love, and I think he was looking for that.”…

…”It’s definitely case by case and what the foundation is,” Poles said. “I would say that relationship [is key], that compatibility piece between quarterback and coach, the balance between, ‘All right, we’re going to bend to the rookie and make him feel comfortable’ versus, ‘There are some hard things we have to get through and you’re going to be uncomfortable but we’re going to press you through that.'”

Ryan Poles’ thoughts are crystal clear.

He feels Eberflus babied Williams way too much. The head coach seemed unable or unwilling to take a firmer approach with the quarterback, focusing more on trying to make him comfortable than on doing what was necessary for his development. That soft-handed approach led to Williams getting lazy on the crucial details of playing the position. That is why he often looked like a deer in headlights in games against Arizona, Seattle, and others. Johnson threw that plan out the window the moment he arrived. He told Williams from the outset that everything they’d do moving forward would be difficult and uncomfortable. Still, if the quarterback was committed to being great, he’d have to accept the challenge. Ryan Poles can already tell he made the right decision.

The Chicago Bears couldn’t have asked for a better debut of their starting lineup last Sunday night against Buffalo. Caleb Williams and the offense scored on their opening drive. The defense got a quick stop on theirs. From there, the backups took care of the rest, hanging 31 unanswered points on Buffalo for a 38-0 victory. This left an interesting question. After seeing such a performance, what would Ben Johnson do in the preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs?

It would be a short week, considering the game is on Friday. The team is already dealing with some injury issues. Maybe he might choose caution and sit his top guys out.

Nope.

Johnson revealed to Kay Adams on Up & Adams that the plan is to get the starters some work against the defending AFC champions at Arrowhead Stadium. He isn’t yet sure how long they’ll be out there, but it is a fair assumption to be at least a couple of series.

Ben Johnson is taking a somewhat surprising approach.

Historically, teams choose to sit their starters in the preseason finale every year. Why the change? The likeliest answer is time. There is a 17-day gap between the end of the preseason and the start of the regular season. Ben Johnson probably doesn’t want his players going three weeks without any kind of game experience. It could dull their edge. Never mind there is also the benefit of having them simulate a game in a hostile stadium against one of the best teams in football. While the injury risks are always worth discussing, this approach has clear benefits. Remember, Andy Reid already announced he’d be playing the Chiefs’ starters in this game. If it’s good enough for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Chris Jones, it should be good enough for the Bears.

We all know the story by now. Caleb Williams was reluctant to get drafted by the Chicago Bears. They have one of the ugliest histories at the position in the NFL. His own father described it as the place where QBs go to die. It is hard to argue with that assessment if you’ve watched the past 40 years of Bears football. Still, Williams decided to embrace the challenge anyway. He felt that if he could defy the odds, he’d build a legacy nobody else has. The Bears thought they had a good plan in place, headlined by experienced offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who’d helped Geno Smith ascend in Seattle.

As it turns out, Waldron was one of the reasons Williams didn’t want to come to Chicago. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN revealed a new wrinkle to the story. Apparently, the quarterback did lots of research on the Bears’ offensive staff going into the draft. Tons of red flags were raised about Waldron.

A source with direct knowledge of Williams’ predraft process said Williams’ fact-finding mission about his new team soured him on Waldron, who was the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator before joining Chicago in January 2024. Among chief concerns, the source said, were whether personalities would jell and how Waldron would use him.

“Whoever he talked to in Seattle didn’t give him the best reviews,” the source said. Waldron, now on Jacksonville’s staff, declined to comment for this story.

That begs the obvious question. If Williams came up with these details on his own during the lead-up to the draft, how in the hell did it slip past Matt Eberflus when he was looking for a new offensive coordinator?

Caleb Williams was at the mercy of Eberflus’ ignorance.

I reached out to a source regarding the situation. It turns out that former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, who sold Eberflus on Waldron. This was despite the team’s gathered evidence that Seattle players hated the former offensive coordinator. Even Waldron himself mentioned that issue. Geno Smith’s success was the primary thing that pushed it over the finish line. Waldron got most of the credit for that, which many believe was mistaken. What followed was 11 games of almost pure misery for Caleb Williams. Waldron was clearly in over his head trying to develop a rookie quarterback, not crafting a proper plan or providing the necessary discipline young players need. He was fired midseason, and Eberflus followed not long after. It is crazy to think Williams saw all of it coming from the start.