1st-and-10: Did Ryan Poles' draft discipline cost him a running back?

Bears general manager Ryan Poles appeared to learn a draft lesson from the Velus Jones experience — don’t reach. But did it cost him a running back Ben Johnson needs? 

Time will tell. A running back figured to be at or near the top of the Bears want list heading into the draft. D’Andre Swift, the Bears’ No. 1 running back, was an early castoff when Johnson became the Lions’ offensive coordinator after rushing 99 times for 542 yards (5.5 avg.) and five touchdowns in a secondary role behind Jamaal Williams in 2022. 

The Bears were interested in trading up to draft Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, but unwilling to pay the price, with presumably plenty of secondary options in a deep draft for running backs. But Poles seemed to get stymied at every turn — missing out on Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo and Virginia Tech’s Bhaysul Tuten, and Oregon’s Jordan James. As CHGO football expert Adam Hoge noted, the Bears traded back three times after just missing out on those backs.

Poles finally got a running back in the seventh round — 5-8, 211-pound Kyle Monangai of Rutgers, a first-team all-Big Ten back who rushed for 1,279 yards (116.3 per game) and 14 touchdowns last season. But was that too late? Probably. But Poles was determined to remain disciplined and “let the board talk to us.” 

That was his buzz-phrase for this draft, perhaps a lesson learned from his first draft in 2021, when he took wide receiver/kick returner Velus Jones in the third round (No. 71) and regretted it. 

Jones, on paper at least, looked like a huge reach for Poles in 2022. He was almost universally projected as a fourth- or fifth-round pick by draft experts — ESPN’s Matt Miller (No. 156), CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson (No. 167), The Athletic’s Dane Brugler (No. 127), Pro Football Network (No. 135), SI.com (No. 128), CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso (No. 255), Bleacher Report (No. 140). ESPN’s Mel Kiper (No. 91) was one of the few established draft experts — and maybe the only one — who projected Jones to go in the top 100.

It could be that Poles overcompensated and was too disciplined here. With a running back class that is considered potentially one of the best ever in the draft, this might have been the time to reach to get one of them. As it is, a team in pretty clear need of a running back had five picks in the top 150 of a running back-heavy draft and ended up with seventh-rounder Kyle Monangai? 

But that’s why the draft process — and learning from your mistakes — can be so difficult. One year you zig when you should have zagged; the next year you zag when you should have zigged. 

Johnson likely was disappointed. For now, anyway, he’s in the somewhat awkward spot of his No. 1 running back being a player he clearly had no use for in Detroit in Swift. Though Johnson indicated in his introductory press conference that he will not be replicating his Lions playbook play-for-play, he has a pretty clear idea of what he wants.

If fact, while Swift (5.5 yards per carry) and Williams (1,066 yards, 17 touchdowns) were productive in his offense in 2022, the Lions still re-booted in 2023 by signing former Bear David Montgomery and taking Jahmyr Gibbs with the No. 12 overall pick in the draft. Same thing with tight end T.J. Hockenson, a former first-round draft pick and Pro Bowl player who had eight catches for 179 yards and two touchdowns in his fourth game in Johnson’s offense in 2022. A month later, he was gone — traded to the Vikings. The Lions drafted tight end Sam LaPorta in the second round (No. 34) the following April. And again, didn’t regret it. Montgomery, Gibbs and LaPorta have been significant upgrades in Johnson’s offense. 

The Bears can still find a veteran running back to challenge or replace Swift — the Browns’ Nick Chubb has been speculated as a candidate, but if not Johnson will make do. Jamaal Williams was just a guy before Johnson got his hands on him (35.4 yards per game, 4.0 yards per carry, three touchdowns per season in five years in the NFL). And with two players he eventually discarded, the Lions improved from 25th to fifth in points and from 22nd to fourth in yards in 2022. 

That was just a start, and that’s where the Bears are with Johnson now. Obviously, Johnson’s success with the Lions is the template the Bears are following — that’s why he’s here. But the bar should be set at 2022 and not 2024. You can lament Poles missing on Henderson or Scattabo, but you have to remember that Johnson didn’t get his preferred backfield until Year 2. 

2. Michigan’s Colston Loveland over Penn State’s Tyler Warren? Until further notice, the right choice is the player Ben Johnson wanted. 

It was a surprise pick. Warren not only was the top tight end projected to go to the Bears in the first round in mock drafts, but the top player overall (18 out of 70 mock drafts I found had the Bears taking Warren; 15 had them taking Jeanty; 14 had them taking Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks).

Kudos to Pete Prisco of CBS Sports, Matt Miller of ESPN and Lindsay Rodes of Sumer Sports for correctly predicting the Bears would take Loveland in the first round. 

The love for Warren was probably skewed by his gadgetry — three completions (out of six attempts) for 35 yards (including a 17-yard touchdown against winless Kent State); and 26 rushing attempts for 218 yards (8.4 average) and four touchdowns — including a 48-yard touchdown against 1-11 Purdue. That made him an even more perfect fit for the inventive Johnson. 

But the scouting report on Loveland in Dane Brugler’s draft preview for The Athletic provided clues to a trait that makes Loveland so appealing: 

• “explosive in releases”

• “can win on slants or posts one-on-one agianst cornerbacks

• “makes deft moves”

• “snap breaks”

• “Efficient on slam-flat plays to engage/sell defenders before releasing into space” 

In other words, Colston Loveland can get open. Even an offense that “schemes receivers open,” the ability to separate on your own is invaluable. 

It remains to be seen if Loveland will live up to that. Kevin White (even considering his string of injuries as a Bear) and tight end Adam Shaheen in particular never lived up to their scouting reports. But drafted players mostly have overachieved or maxed out in Johnson’s offense (Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Jameson Williams, LaPorta and Gibbs). The Bears paid $13 million a year for the benefit of the doubt and until further notice, they will get it. 

3. Loveland doesn’t have Warren’s passing/rushing numbers — his two carries at Michigan lost a combined 10 yards (two and eight). But at 6-6, 248 he’s got some versatility. He once played nine positions in a high school game in Idaho — quarterback, running back, wide receiver, slot receiver, tight end, free safety, strong safety, outside linebacker and defensive end. If he’s the real deal, it’s more than likely Johnson will take advantage of that athleticism. 

4. Drafting Loveland at No. 10 and Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden at No. 39 to go with wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze and tight end Cole Kmet gives Johnson more weapons than a Bears coach usually has. But at Halas Hall, it will never not be amusing to hear concerns about a Bears offense keeping everybody happy. 

This is a franchise that has ranked in the bottom half of the NFL in scoring for 14 of the last 16 seasons, and 24 of the last 29. Their highest five-year average in scoring ranking since the Ditka era (which ended in 1992) is 14.8 — barely in the top half of the league. That was in 2006-10 (second, 18th, 14th, 19th and 21st). That’s it. The Packers worst rolling five-year average in scoring in the same span is 12.2 (2017-21). 

The Bears now have five receivers who have been drafted in the first or second round — three first-round picks (Odunze, Moore, Loveland) and two second-round picks (Kmet, Burden). But they’re a long way from needing a second football. With yet another offense in a formative stage under yet another new coordinator, you don’t have block to get the rock, you just have to get (bleeping) open. 

5. I agree with ESPN’s Michael Wilbon’s assessment that Shedeur Sanders’ plummet to the fifth round was personal, but don’t share his ire. It should be personal. That’s what the NFL Draft is all about. That’s the advantage NFL personnel guys have over the rest of us — they get to interview the player (or request an interview), look into his eyes, get a feel for what he’s all about and then match it up with the tape. And word gets around — that’s a part of the process, too.

Sanders didn’t pass the test, according to insiders. That doesn’t mean the NFL guys are right. The Bears made it personal when they passed on Randy Moss because of character concerns, and then he overslept his pre-draft meeting with them. “I think character was an issue,” Bears director of college scouting Bill Rees said at the time. “People were just concerned. People had to look at him individually and see if they could manage him.” 

As it turned out, they could. Not only was Moss a productive and mostly manageable player, but the player the Bears drafted, Penn State running back Curtis Enis, was an ill-fated personality problem from the start. 

But that same year, Bill Polian made it personal when he chose Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf. And he was right. “[Manning] was more mature. He was a dedicated student of the game,” Polian told me in 2000.

Sanders will get a chance to prove everyone wrong, but he has mostly himself — and his father — to blame for the position he’s in. Right or wrong, the NFL did their due diligence. In the history of the NFL draft, more mistakes have been made by over-relying on tape and pro days and workouts than by making it personal. 

6. Poles and the Bears scouting staff continued to emphasize athleticism in their fourth draft. Their first five picks were all four- and five-star athletes coming out of high school — Loveland (four), Burden (five), offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo (four), defensive tackle Shemar Turner (five) and linebacker Ruben Hyppolite (four). 

In Poles’ first draft, just one of the 10 players the Bears drafted was a four/five star athlete — cornerback Kyler Gordon (four). Since then, 13 of the 22 position players the Bears have drafted have been four/five star players, including eight five-star players — Darnell Wright, Gervon Dexter, Tyrique Stevenson, Zacch Pickens, Noah Sewell in 2023; Caleb Williams in 2024; and Burden and Turner this year. 

7. Linebacker Ruben Hyppolite from Maryland seemed like an odd pick. He was taken in the fourth round (No. 132) when he was expected to be an undrafted free agent. In various seven-round mock drafts, only NFL.com had him being drafted (No. 215).

At a position that wasn’t a high need, he seems like the 5-11 1/2, 236-pound Hyppolite was drafted for a core special teams role. But in that role or any other, he’s worth keeping an eye on. Like Burden, he transferred to a public high school as a senior so he could enroll in college early — former Bears secondary coach Jon Hoke was his defensive coordinator when Hyppolite was a freshman in 2020. And Hyppolite is getting faster. He ran a 4.54 40 at around 225 pounds when he entered Maryland. He ran a 4.39 40 at 236 pounds on his pro day.

8. Luther Burden’s basketball background — he won a state championship as a sophomore in high school, and his father Luther Burden Jr. was a star player at St. Louis University in the early ‘80s — had me wondering if he was related to Luther “Ticky” Burden, an All-American guard at Utah who played three seasons in the ABA and NBA from 1975-78.

There are actually published reports that the Bears’ Luther Burden is the grandson of Ticky Burden, but that can’t be. Luther’s father was born in 1962. Ticky Burden was born in 1953. 

(Likewise, undrafted free agent wide receiver J.P. Richardson from TCU and Missouri City, Texas is not related to J.P. Richardson, the Texas-born “Big Bopper,” who died in the Buddy Holly plane crash in 1959.)

Fun Fact: Safety Jaquan Brisker’s grandfather is former ABA All-Star John Brisker, who played six seasons with the Pittsburgh Pipers/Condors and Seattle Supersonics from 1969-75, but disappeared mysteriously in 1978 and was never heard from again. 

9. Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Steve McMichael, who died on the eve of the NFL draft (April 23), left a tremendous legacy as an unforgettable player, person and personality — an inspiration to anyone who plays in the NFL, or dreams of playing in the NFL. An inspiration to anyone, really. 

A third-round pick by the Patriots out of Texas in 1980, McMichael was cut in training camp in 1981 and parlayed his work ethic and resilience into a Hall of Fame career. The Bears signed him on Oct. 15, 1981 to replace oft-injured defensive tackle Brad Shearer — like McMichael a former Texas All-American and third-round draft pick. 

McMichael played 13 seasons ith the Bears and never missed a game — a record 191 consecutive games played (213 including the playoffs). His 92.5 sacks is second on the Bears’ all-time list behind fellow Hall of Famer Richard Dent (124.5). Mongo will be missed, but never forgotten. 

10. Bear-ometer — 8-9: at Commanders (L); at Eagles (L); vs. Cowboys (L); vs. Browns (W); at Ravens (L); vs. Lions (L); at 49ers (L); at Bengals (L); at Vikings (L); vs. Giants (W); vs. Steelers (W); vs. Saints (W); at Raiders (W); at Lions (L); vs. Packers (W); vs. Vikings (W); at Packers (W). 

(Actual schedule, dates and times to be released in May)