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.”
