I want to make one thing clear before I say anything else.
In no way, shape, or form am I defending the current iteration of the Chicago Bears led by overmatched and overwhelmed George Halas scion, George McCaskey. In 14 years as Chicago’s chairman, McCaskey has ruined the reputation of the NFL’s charter franchise by overseeing the worst era in team history. Three of the five worst Bears coaches ever by winning percentage were hired under his guidance. In effect, McCaskey has demonstrated his milquetoast leadership is pathetic at worst and inept at best.
No organization led by this clear product of nepotism deserves the benefit of the doubt.
With that said, it’s quite amusing to hear that Bears general manager Ryan Poles is reportedly unhappy with Chicago’s new power structure. It’s as if he doesn’t understand the job he took in the first place. That, or he thinks he doesn’t deserve accountability.
According to Waddle and Silvy of ESPN1000 in Chicago, Poles doesn’t like that he now has to report to team president Kevin Warren. It’s “not a personal thing,” either. It’s that Poles apparently doesn’t like not reporting to McCaskey anymore, as he did in the 2.5 years before the Bears fired Poles’ hand-picked doofus coach, Matt Eberflus.
My guy. C’mon. Can we please have a modicum of self-awareness?
BIG report on Waddle and Silvy today that Ryan Poles is frustrated having to report to Warren and might not have taken the job if he knew about this power dynamic.
Wowza. Keeps getting worse at Halas hall. Not a situation a sought after coach would want to enter. #DaBears pic.twitter.com/WeD3vOsEwU
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) December 10, 2024
Let’s set aside the fact that the Bears have operated like this for years. Let’s ignore that they have usually emasculated their general manager while empowering a glorified accountant (I haven’t forgotten you, Ted Phillips!) who has no precedent of success at the professional level of football. Let’s also not forget that Poles was hired before Warren and even served on the 2023 search committee that brought Warren to the organization. They broke their own mold to let Poles have the reins to himself for once.
So, I don’t think Poles reporting to Warren now is all that outlandish. That’s because, for as much as I wouldn’t trust Warren to bring the Bears back to prominence, I trust Poles even less. I’m not sure I would trust Poles to dial the water temperature in a shower, much less build a Super Bowl-caliber team.
At the time of this writing, Poles’ Bears have a meager 14 wins in three seasons. They have never been relevant past Thanksgiving. After bungling the short-lived Justin Fields era, Chicago is now in serious danger of ruining an even better quarterback prospect in Caleb Williams — one of the biggest pillars of hope this franchise has seen in decades.
The Bears’ trademark incompetence aside, most of that lies at the feet of Poles.
Poles is the one who has made perplexing decisions in free agency time and time again. For example, he gave underwhelming linebacker Tremaine Edmunds just $3.2 million less guaranteed than perennial First-Team All-Pro Roquan Smith, who he traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Somewhere, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is still running past Edmunds in coverage.
Despite stockpiling salary cap room and assets he has yet to use in a productive fashion, Poles is the one who weirdly mortgaged part of the Bears’ future with an ill-advised, expensive trade for workout warrior receiver Chase Claypool. Surely, it’ll shock you to learn Claypool finished his Bears career with just 18 catches for 191 yards.
Poles is the one who once emphasized the importance of addressing the Bears’ trenches. We’re almost three years into his tenure, and the Bears still have zero building blocks on the offensive interior, even though they have the best quarterback talent they’ve ever had playing for them. The Bears are on pace to allow over 60 sacks this season. Good stuff!
To give Williams a red carpet for his early NFL career, Poles also helped empower ex-offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. The Bears’ offense has basically had no consistent rhythm for three months. It’s only looked occasionally good when Williams has played off-schedule because Waldron installed nothing coherent or sustainable. Now unemployed, Waldron will sooner get a job off LinkedIn before he’s entrusted to run another team’s offense again.
And don’t get me started on Poles’ drafting history. He has arguably left the cupboard more bare than any of his recent predecessors. The Bears are just as far away from competitive relevance now as when Poles took the job in 2022.
Gee, I wonder why Poles’ bosses moved around the chairs on the deck of their personal Titanic.
So forgive me if I want to play a tiny violin for one of the NFL’s worst general managers. He gets no sympathy from me. If Poles really is upset that he has to report to someone else now, he doesn’t understand how badly he executed his own convoluted rebuild plan. He has not earned the right to complain.
Frankly, he’s lucky he still has his job.
