From the beginning, Ryan Poles has understood this is a process, a methodical grind to, in his words, “stair-step this thing” to where the Chicago Bears not only can experience meaningful success again but sustain it. Poles never has sought shortcuts or tried to unearth some secret potion that could magically revitalize one of the NFL’s worst rosters with a snap of the fingers.
Instead, Poles has adopted a brick-by-brick approach to rebuilding the Bears. Which is why he stood in front of an all-staff meeting before last season and handed out tiny blue Lego blocks emblazoned with the Bears name. Each block was a symbol of the philosophy the first-year general manager wanted everyone inside Halas Hall to embrace.
“I talked about the entire organization doing what it takes to stick together,” Poles explained in January. “Because I knew how important it was to build a foundation that was rock solid (where) this wasn’t on something that was shaky and that would fracture.”
Poles was excited by the immediate buy-in throughout the building and remained encouraged even as the Bears nosedived to a historically bad season in 2022. He had — and always will have — one eye looking to the future. And when a 3-14 campaign finished with 10 consecutive losses, Poles remained convinced the franchise’s rebound was about to begin.
“I know we are in a healthier situation now than we were before,” he said immediately after the season, “and we’re excited about where we’re going.”
Poles was particularly excited about where he was going — into an offseason with so much freedom and potential. With a sharp vision for how he intends to build everything back up, Poles felt ready and eager to embark on a journey of trades, free-agency signings and draft selections with confidence he could push the Bears first toward relevance, then toward true competitiveness and finally on to championship contention.
On Friday, by completing a much-anticipated trade with the Carolina Panthers for the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, Poles added to his resource supply, acquiring a proven standout receiver in D.J. Moore plus, according to a league source, four additional draft picks.
The Bears agreed to move down eight spots in the first round while also snatching the No. 61 pick next month plus the Panthers’ first-round pick in 2024 and their second-round selection in 2025.
Fist pumps and chest bumps all around.
Justifiably, most of a hopeful Bears fan base is celebrating the big haul, thankful all that losing last fall wasn’t done in vain and optimistic Poles will take the extra at-bats he bought over the next three drafts and hit for a high average.
Proven commodity
Moore’s arrival is the true bonus — and the reason this trade was executed before free agency began, allowing the Bears and Panthers to recalibrate for the start of the new league year, which will ring in at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Moore, who turns 26 next month, should immediately bring experience and toughness to the Bears offense, giving quarterback Justin Fields a proven go-to threat. Over the last four seasons, Moore has averaged 77 catches, 1,103 yards and five touchdowns, even with so much quarterback instability swirling around him in a Panthers huddle that was led, at various points, by Cam Newton, Kyle Allen, Will Grier, Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield.
Imagine what Moore might be capable of if he can quickly build meaningful continuity and rapport with Fields. And imagine where Fields might have the chance to go in his third season if Poles continues building a higher-quality supporting cast around him.
That mission will enter the next phase Monday, when the free-agency negotiation window opens and the Bears begin shopping in the offensive line aisle, potentially in the mix for one of the standout tackles on the market. Perhaps Poles will finalize a headline-grabbing deal for Orlando Brown or Mike McGlinchey. Or Kaleb McGary or Jawaan Taylor.
Poles knows his roster restocking process has only just begun. And the accumulation of salary-cap space and draft capital is valuable only if it is used to acquire difference-making players.
Only time will tell
The Bears cleared an important checkpoint with Friday’s trade, and the return haul should aid the roster revitalization process. Poles deserves the applause he has been getting in Chicago and within league circles, squeezing valuable capital out of the deal he orchestrated.
But it’s also far, far too early to classify the trade as any sort of landmark accomplishment. It will be years before anyone can deduce how much this flip of the No. 1 pick actually advanced the Bears.
We will have to wait and see whom the Panthers select at No. 1 and which other players come off the board before the Bears pick. We will have to track the career trajectories of all of those players while also assessing whether Fields makes a breakthrough in 2023.
We also will have to keep an eye on those two future draft selections the Bears reeled in from the Panthers and assess how that all pans out. And that’s where a hopeful city’s giddiness must be tempered just a bit with a realist’s reminder that jubilant celebrations should remain in line with tangible achievement.
One day soon, hopefully, Bears fans will have actual on-field success to high-five about. For everyone involved, that would be a refreshing alternative to the current state of “We did it!” parties that prompt the natural follow-up question: Did what exactly?
As one league source noted at the scouting combine last week, the genuine and justifiable excitement the Bears feel about this 2023 offseason became reality only because of how dismal they were in 2022, losing 14 times and collecting their final victory in Week 7.
As that source pontificated, would the Bears have been in significantly worse shape for their long-term future if they had won six games but done so with a more impressive roster?
What if, for example, they were marching into 2023 with a homegrown, first-round pick turned All-Pro linebacker under contract and locked in as part of their nucleus for years to come?
Or what if Fields had propelled two or three game-winning drives with pocket poise and clutch playmaking, removing the worries that his flaws as a passer will limit his NFL ascent?
Brick by brick
To take that thinking a few steps further, what if Velus Jones had emerged as a reliable and consistent contributor in the offense, reducing the need for the Bears to add to their receiving firepower with trades for Chase Claypool and now Moore.
What if Trevis Gipson had emerged as an every-week impact pass rusher, lessening the need to chase defensive difference makers this offseason?
You get the point. The Bears need more game-changers. And to this point, they’ve really netted only a wad of raffle tickets to hopefully land them.
It’s easy to point to the Miami Dolphins’ big trade in 2021 as best-case blueprint, with GM Chris Grier trading back from No. 3 to No. 12 a month before the draft and using parts of the return haul to help draft Jaylen Waddle and trade for Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb.
But there are other such trade-down deals that produce more shrug-worthy, long-term dividends. Ask the 2012 St. Louis Rams, who pounced on the Washington Redskins’ eagerness to draft quarterback Robert Griffin III and executed a trade from No. 2 to No. 6. That move earned the Rams a huge gift basket of picks. But the collection of players those picks turned into — Michael Brockers, Janoris Jenkins, Isaiah Pead, Rokevious Watkins, Alec Ogletree, Stedman Bailey, Zac Stacy and Greg Robinson — hardly registered as franchise-changing.
The same goes for the Cleveland Browns, who in 2016 happily allowed the Philadelphia Eagles to grab their No. 2 pick to draft Carson Wentz. The resources the Browns grabbed for sliding down six spots ultimately resulted in a group that included Corey Coleman, Shon Coleman, Cody Kessler, Ricardo Louis, Derrick Kindred, Jordan Payton and Spencer Drango.
That same year the Tennessee Titans traded out of the No. 1 spot, moved down to No. 15 and snagged a plethora of picks from the Rams, who badly wanted Jared Goff as their franchise quarterback. The Titans used the gift card from that deal to land Jack Conklin, Derrick Henry, Austin Johnson, Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith. That was a mostly positive yield but won’t soon be the subject of a gripping “30 for 30.”
Thankfully for the Bears, Poles and assistant GM Ian Cunningham remain appropriately grounded and cognizant that the team still needs a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of swings to produce the results they are after. With a lengthy checklist of offseason goals and priorities, they must continue to build step by step, brick by brick.
Friday’s trade was beneficial and energizing. A major box was checked. But from here, Poles and the Bears must conquer the next legs on the journey. The hardest parts are still ahead.
