Chicago Bears basic supervisor Ryan Poles touched on a variety of matters throughout his information convention this week on the NFL scouting mix.
Together with supporting the expansion of quarterback Justin Fields and valuing the second and third waves of free company, listed here are 4 different issues we realized from Poles as he prepares to transform the Bears roster.
1. Poles desires the Bears offensive line to get faster and lighter.
Poles has a protracted checklist of choices to make on the offensive line, together with what he envisions for 2021 rookies Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom and whether or not the Bears will re-sign guard James Daniels.
He didn’t get into specifics on these gamers — declining to say what place he expects Jenkins to play. However when requested about his analysis of the unit, he indicated modifications are forward.
“The message has been clear — we’ve received to vary physique varieties slightly bit,” Poles mentioned. “We’ve received to get lighter, we’ve received to get faster. Via that, I believe there’s some younger expertise that simply must be pressed. That’s a part of our job is to create competitors and produce the most effective out of them. We’ll do this, and we’ll see if the cream rises to the highest. Particularly with the O-line play quite a lot of occasions — and I don’t need to communicate for the coaches — but it surely’s going to finish up being the most effective 5 to roll on the market.”
A facet word on these feedback: Poles, who employed Brent Salazar to be the Bears director of excessive efficiency, mentioned he’s going to take physique fats and weight severely amongst all of his gamers.
Again to the road, Poles, who was an offensive lineman at Boston School, spoke strongly in January of fortifying the unit after watching the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs do it final 12 months. Simply how he does that is still to be seen.
“It’s essential to me to get the road fastened,” Poles mentioned then. “Simply because I’ve performed it, I really feel like I’m an excellent evaluator of offensive linemen. It additionally helped that we did it in Kansas Metropolis final 12 months. We felt like we received embarrassed within the Tremendous Bowl. And we made the choice. We sat down and mentioned, ‘We are able to’t let that occur once more.’ And we went to work and located other ways. That’s a extremely good pattern dimension when it comes to we used free company. We used commerce. We used the draft. We used an emergency waiver-wire-type transaction to solidify the entrance. So we’re going to make use of all totally different areas to try this.”
2. Poles burdened the significance of recent assistant basic supervisor Ian Cunningham.
As Poles is dealing with the entire work that comes with being a brand new GM, he mentioned Cunningham has performed “an enormous half” in him settling into the job.
“Getting pulled in so many various instructions, that’s very new to me,” Poles mentioned. “Having him out in entrance and dealing with our workers if I get pulled out of a gathering, he retains the ball rolling, retains an inventory of gamers that I must get caught up on. All methods are all the time shifting, and we don’t get stalled out for the entire issues which can be occurring.”
Cunningham joined the Bears on Jan. 29 after 14 years with the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he rose to be director of participant personnel.
Poles mentioned in January that he was an enormous admirer of how the Ravens constructed their staff beneath Ozzie Newsome, beneath whom Cunningham labored. And Poles appreciated that Cunningham’s transfer to the Eagles gave him a special sort of expertise on an analytics-focused workers beneath Howie Roseman.
“Bringing that in permits us to develop the place we are able to pair all of our experiences collectively,” Poles mentioned. “That’s going to be highly effective. … Each basic supervisor I’ve had will get pulled in so many various instructions. We’ll be assembly. One thing will pop up. ‘Hey, I’ve received to go speak to the proprietor.’ They come out and all people simply sits there. So a part of Ian’s job — and we talked about it — hold the ball rolling. Make the checklist of men I missed. I’ll atone for my very own. However hold the method going so we’re not pausing.”
Roseman mentioned this week that he already misses Cunningham and Brandon Brown, who left his submit as co-director of participant personnel to be the New York Giants assistant basic supervisor.
“These guys are those who not solely did we depend on professionally however personally,” Roseman mentioned. “They’re simply folks I actually loved being round and are associates.
“It’s onerous for me since you see these guys and so they have a chance to assist themselves and their households. However on the similar time, it doesn’t actually assist the Eagles. Particularly the timing of this, which I believe it’s one thing possibly that we now have to speak about going ahead, about dropping guys throughout this draft course of, particularly in your convention, one in your division. That’s not superb.”
3. Poles mentioned he was ‘very glad’ with the group of scouts he has.
Poles labored beneath three basic managers whereas with the Chiefs, so he has watched how totally different leaders have approached making modifications with the personnel workers and scouts they inherit, from adjusting grade scales and values to implementing new communication kinds. He thinks he adapts properly to such change.
However he wasn’t precisely positive what he was getting within the Bears holdovers.
He got here away “pumped” in regards to the group and its course of.
“The conferences had been unimaginable, and earlier than we broke, I advised all of them how proud I used to be,” Poles mentioned. “As a result of as a brand new GM you are available, you’re like, ‘All proper, you’re evaluating them, you’re evaluating the evaluators.’ On the finish of it, the factor that stood out to me is there’s a gaggle of actually, actually good those who labored actually onerous this fall to assemble the data.
“Now my fashion was slightly bit totally different, our assembly construction was totally different. It was a tradition of candor. It’s open. We have now an order in the best way we watch the tape. However after that everybody can communicate their thoughts. If I see one thing totally different than you, then I deliver it as much as the room and we work by it. You may inform me the place you noticed it totally different and we’ll go discover it. That group effort I believe was refreshing to everybody.”
Bears coach Matt Eberflus mentioned they constructed profile tapes of what they’re in search of at every place.
“Then we went in with Ryan and the scouting staffs and we sat there for hours and talked about every place so all people’s on the identical web page when it comes to what we’re in search of in every place,” Eberflus mentioned. “We did the identical factor with free company. We’re doing the identical factor with the draft. It’s continuously working collectively to verify we’re on the identical web page.”
4. Poles wouldn’t discuss whether or not working again Tarik Cohen is wholesome.
Cohen final performed a sport on Sept. 27, 2020, when he tore the ACL in his proper knee whereas taking part in towards the Atlanta Falcons.
Former Bears basic supervisor Ryan Tempo and coach Matt Nagy usually prevented addressing his restoration progress, and Poles adopted swimsuit.
“I don’t actually need to get into the medical piece of particular person gamers, however we’ll simply take it a day at a time to determine the place he’s at,” Poles mentioned.
Cohen’s extended absence raises questions on whether or not his place on this Bears staff is in peril.
“(Head athletic coach) Andre Tucker’s among the finest within the league, and we’re simply going to have these conversations to see the place every thing stands and make the most effective choice we are able to make at the moment,” Poles mentioned.
Final month, Cohen was voted the winner of the Bears’ Ed Block Braveness Award, which is voted on by teammates and goes to a participant who “shows professionalism, energy, dedication and is a group position mannequin.”
Over 51 video games from 2017 till his harm, Cohen totaled 1,101 dashing yards and 5 touchdowns and 1,575 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns and likewise was an All-Professional returner.
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