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New Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is doing his best to make sure that he and second-year quarterback Justin Fields are on the same page when it comes to the GM’s big-picture plan for the organization.
He’s also including his young signal-caller in pre-draft film viewing sessions. Poles, who just completed his first draft as the team’s GM, noted he and Fields watched tape on potential prospects leading up to the big day.
“We actually watched tape together,” Poles revealed when speaking with the media on April 29. “I want to be able to communicate with my quarterback, so he understands from me the direction we’re going and what we’re looking at.”
The Bears general manger also acknowledged his 23-year-old QB’s leadership. “He’s the trigger man. He’s got the ball in his hand, he should be part of that,” Poles added.
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Bears Added 1 WR in Draft, Will Likely Add More Soon
Poles and Fields may have watched film on potential prospects, but the Bears GM didn’t add any splash picks on offense. Here’s the complete list of players Poles selected in the draft this year:
- Kyler Gordon, CB, second round, No. 39
- Jaquan Brisker, S, second round, No. 48
- Velus Jones Jr., WR/KR, third round, No. 71
- Braxton Jones, OT, fifth round, No. 168
- Dominque Robinson, edge rusher, fifth round, No. 174
- Zach Thomas, G, sixth round, No. 186
- Trestan Ebner, RB/KR, sixth round, No. 203
- Doug Kramer, C, sixth round, No. 207
- Ja’Tyre Carter, OT/G, seventh round, No. 226
- Elijah Hicks, S, seventh round, No. 254
- Trenton Gill, P, seventh round, No. 255
Velus Jones may turn out to be a productive and dynamic player, but Chicago could still use a veteran for Fields to throw to. Regardless, it’s nice the new GM is involving the team’s franchise quarterback in important decisions while also picking his brain about players in the draft.
Former franchise QB Mitch Trubisky revealed towards the end of his tenure with the Bears in 2020 that his head coach at the time, ex-Bears coach Matt Nagy, virtually ignored the QB’s opinions about the team and its offense. Seeing Poles pick his QB’s brain and watch film with him while also keeping him fully in the loop is a refreshing change of pace.
“We’re always going to be aggressive to get him the tools that he needs to be successful,” Poles said about Fields at the NFL owners meetings at the end of March, per the team’s official website. “It’s just the timing and the talent level and the cap situation; all of those are going to dictate when we can go and we can’t go. But I think what we’ve done so far is at least establish a little bit of growth in the roster, plus the scheme, with the coaching, I see him getting better.”
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Poles Hinted After the Draft Free Agency Is Option at WR
When asked post-draft whether the Bears will be adding more receivers via free agency, Poles said that was an option.
“The beautiful thing is that we have rookie minicamp coming up this week and we’ll get to see a lot of these players out running around,” Poles said after the draft concluded on April 30.
“We’ll see our roster the last few weeks and we’ll just keep self-evaluating. If that’s (free agency) the route we need to go, then we will. If we feel comfortable with our group, then we’re still going to look for talent; we always do. But we’ll just kind of take it one phase at a time.”
With the 2022 draft in the books, the expectation now is for the team to bring in a veteran receiver. Fortunately for Chicago, there are still some options available.
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