Bears general manager Ryan Poles was so popular at the start of the NFL offseason — he held the first overall pick, and the fate of the top of the draft, in his hands — that his team set up shop at a relatively out-of-the-way hotel during the NFL Scouting Combine. The Indianapolis Hyatt Regency wasn’t as fancy as the J.W. Marriott, but Poles was less likely to get cornered in the hotel lobby by rival executives wanting to talk trade.
When Poles traded the pick to the Panthers for the ninth selection — and more — in March, he was no longer the fulcrum upon which the draft teetered.
By Tuesday, he was silent. The Bears, for the first time in recent memory, did not make their general manager available to preview this week’s draft. While almost every other NFL team allowed their top decision-maker to answer questions about the draft — or, to be more precise, not answer them — the Bears produced assistant GM Ian Cunningham at the podium inside Halas Hall.
Whether Poles wanted to preview the draft or not, though, he knows how much is riding on this week. The GM’s reputation could be at stake. He has a first-round pick Thursday for the first time in his career — and a team that was the NFL’s worst last season. He holds the safety net of the Panthers’ first overall pick next season — and their second-rounder the year after that — but needs to fix things now.
That’s a lot of pressure.
“I kind of look at it as pressures of privilege …” Cunningham said Tuesday. “At least for us, you just kind of look at it as, ‘This is a draft’ — you know, we’re excited about it. And you just try and keep yourself in the moment and stay in the moment.
“But we try and just not put too much more pressure on it than it really needs to be.”
It’s there, whether the Bears want it to be or not.
The Bears traded the first overall pick earlier than any team in modern NFL history; could they have gotten more had they waited?
“I don’t know if there is a world we would have gotten more,” Cunningham. “But I think the value in which we were able to accomplish at that time ... was really good.”
The holes on the Bears roster are myriad enough that Poles could go in any number of directions in Round 1 on Thursday.
The most obvious answer would be to draft a starting tackle to protect quarterback Justin Fields: Ohio State’s Paris Johnson, Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski, Georgia’s Broderick Jones or Tennessee’s Darnell Wright. The Bears could use a cornerback, too, be it Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon or Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez.
But what happens if Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson falls? Or Jalen Carter is available after scaring teams off with his offseason behavior? Texas running back Bijan Robinson is a generational running back — but no one drafts running backs in the top 10, right? Right?
The Bears have “anywhere from six to eight” players who they believe presents good value at No. 9 overall, Cunningham said. If they’re not available, they’ll try to trade back. If one of the draft’s top four quarterbacks is still on the board at No. 9, they’d likely have at least one trade partner. The Bears currently don’t draft again until No. 53 because of the Chase Claypool trade, and would love to rectify that.
Cunningham, though, said the Bears would need to be comfortable with the needs of other NFL teams in order to trade back with confidence. The Bears’ pro personnel staff has spent weeks briefing Poles about exactly that.
That’d be another decision for Poles in an offseason full of them. A lot will be at stake.
