The snapshots of this resurgent Bears season have been of coach Ben Johnson ripping off his shirt in a raucous celebration, quarterback Caleb Williams weaving off-balanced passes through defenses and the various last-minute heroics of Josh Blackwell, Cairo Santos, Colston Loveland and others.
They’re frame-worthy photos and someday they might hang in the office of the man who put it all together: general manager Ryan Poles.
It’s easy to forget about Poles, even amid by far the biggest success of his tenure, but this could mark the season in which his rebuild got on track.
He’s been quieter than ever, leaving the spotlight primarily to Johnson, and isn’t even doing the team-run pre-game radio show. At the onset of training camp in July, Poles spoke for a few minutes and didn’t take questions, deferring to Johnson to handle that. At the trade deadline, he came into the work area of the media room at Halas Hall — surrounded by cubicles, not at a podium— and answered questions for a few minutes off camera.
Other than one-on-one interviews, that’s all anyone has heard from Poles at a time when he could be taking a victory lap. Perhaps, like Johnson, he sees that there’s still a lot of work ahead to get the Bears where they truly want to be.
But Poles deserves credit for stitching this together with huge moves, subtle ones and the major course correction of hiring Johnson. Virtually anyone would’ve hired Johnson, and many teams tried over the last few years, but Poles was the one who closed the deal, and that was in large part because he’d already put enough solid pieces in place to convince Johnson this team had high-end potential.
Poles got more than a brilliant offensive play-caller when he landed Johnson. He has overhauled the team’s mentality, coached Williams hard and tightened up game management, which arguably was the most embarrassing weakness of predecessor Matt Eberflus.
Going into the season, Johnson told the Sun-Times, “I’m far from perfect; I’m going to make plenty of mistakes here this year.”
Anybody keeping a list?
Not much comes to mind.
But Poles also got someone who could sharpen him as a personnel man, and had the humility to make room for another voice after three seasons in which the Bears went 15-36.
He listened to Johnson during the draft even when he wanted to address issues the Bears previously considered solved.
They drafted Loveland, a tight end, this year with the No. 10 overall pick less than two years after Poles signed Cole Kmet to a $50 million contract extension. They drafted wide receiver Luther Burden next at No. 39 overall despite the year before using the No. 9 pick on Rome Odunze and shelling out $110 million on an extension for DJ Moore.
Poles was still holding out hope for Braxton Jones to straighten out at left tackle or for 2024 third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie to step into that role, but spent the No. 56 overall pick on Ozzy Trapilo anyway. Trapilo has been the starting left tackle since Week 12 and given the Bears reason to be optimistic about his future.
To Poles’ credit, Johnson has brought out the best in many of the players he already had in place, starting with Williams. It’s been another up-and-down season for him, but there are signs he’s progressing. The results of his growth under Johnson should be more evident next season.
Odunze has flourished right alongside him and had a shot at a 1,000-yard season before his foot injury derailed him.
Around the rest of the offense, running back D’Andre Swift has had a huge bounce-back season under Johnson and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy and now looks like a candidate to stick around rather than the Bears use the relatively cheap opt-out in his contract after this season.
Johnson said this week Swift’s running style is “probably the most disciplined I’ve seen in his career” and credited him for “staying right on the track and trusting the blocking up front and helping setting up some of those blocks.” It’s a lot easier for Swift to do that after the Bears replaced the middle of their offensive line with Pro Bowl-caliber talent in guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and center Drew Dalman.
It doesn’t hurt, either, that right tackle Darnell Wright looks like a Pro Bowl candidate as well and almost certainly has earned a contract extension in the upcoming offseason.
Poles putting all those pieces in place has the Bears pushing for a playoff spot now and aiming for more in the long run. It finally looks like a complete roster, and in the next offseason, it’ll need some touch-ups, but not a massive renovation.
Nonetheless, it still hinges on the most important move he’s made in his four years in charge: going all in on Williams as the franchise quarterback. Even with his uneven season, the Bears have been able to steal wins here and there and might even sneak into the playoffs. They’ll need more than that to go to the next level, but thanks to the work Poles and Johnson have done, everything else is mostly ready.
