Sections

Advertisement

Bears hire Ryan Poles: 5 reasons for optimism with Chicago's new GM

The Chicago Bears hired Ryan Poles as their new general manager on Tuesday, which filled an important vacancy in the front office.

Poles rose through the ranks with the Kansas City Chiefs. He got his start as a scouting assistant in 2009 before making his ascent within the organization. He was promoted to director of college scouting in 2016 before he was promoted once more to assistant director of player personnel in 2018. Poles recently stepped into the role as Chiefs’ executive director of player personnel.

While we won’t know for several years whether Poles is a good hire, the initial reaction to his hiring has been a good one. Fans are thrilled by Poles’ hiring and NFL analysts have had nothing but good things to say about him.

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the hiring of Poles:

Kansas City Chiefs

1
Poles hails from a winning organization

For a struggling organization like the Bears, it’s certainly encouraging that they looked at some GM candidates from successful organizations around the league in their search. Poles spent his entire 13-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he’s had a chance to see how a winning organization is built.

Poles was considered a rising star within the Chiefs organization, where he’s involved in the scouting process, which includes when Kansas City landed Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs have won at least 10 games in each of the last six seasons, which also includes two AFC championships, four straight AFC title game appearances and a Super Bowl victory.

2
Poles survived 3 different GM regimes

It would be easy to connect the dots between Poles and former GM Ryan Pace given their similar resumes — especially as both were with just one organization before getting their shot. But these are two completely different situations. Look no further than the fact that Poles survived three different GM regimes in Kansas City.

Poles got his start with Scott Pioli, where he climbed the ladder from player personnel assistant to college scouting administrator. He was retained by John Dorsey, where he was promoted again to director of college scouting. When Brett Veach was brought in, he chose to retain Poles and promote him to assistant director of player personnel. Just this year, Poles was promoted again to executive director of player personnel.

Not only has Poles remained with the organization three three different GM regimes, but he’s had a chance to work with three different GMs.

3
Poles has been praised as a great talent evaluator

Poles has an extensive scouting background within the Chiefs organization, where he’s overseen all aspects of scouting players, helping with free agency preparation and assisting GM Brett Veach with the NFL draft.

Given Poles’ scouting background, it’s worth noting he was part of the success Kansas City has had in the NFL draft. He has an eye for talent that will be vital to building a winning roster with the Bears, which is something he’s seen Veach do with the Chiefs.

4
Poles was a finalist in all 4 GM interviews

The Bears got a potential steal in Poles as GM, as he’s someone who’s been in high demand dating back to last year when he interviewed for the Carolina Panthers GM vacancy. He was a finalist for that job, ultimately losing out. But it played out perfectly for Chicago this year.

Poles was a finalist for three of the four organizations in need of a GM: the Bears, New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings. Ultimately, all four franchises that Poles has interviewed with, he’s been a finalist for those openings. And that says a lot about a 36-year old exec getting an opportunity as GM.

Chicago managed to steal Poles from Minnesota, which is a big reason why the Bears acted quickly in not letting Poles leave Halas Hall without a deal in place.

5
Poles' hiring was unanimous

Chicago had three, potentially four, GM finalists heading into Tuesday in Poles, Monti Ossenfort, Eliot Wolf and possibly Morocco Brown. But after Poles’ second interview on Tuesday, it was clear Poles was their guy.

The Bears indeed got their guy in Poles, who Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog said was an unanimous decision from the five-person search team that conducted the GM search. Poles was the top candidate across the board.

More Analysis