Another sign of progress for Ryan Poles

After three seasons as the Bears general manager, Ryan Poles’ key to success is his ability to learn from past mistakes. No more Matt Eberfluses. No more Nate Davises. No more Chase Claypools. 

So far, so good. Given a second chance after Eberflus was fired last season, Poles hired Ben Johnson — an offensive coordinator with impressive credentials of not only turning a bad offense into a good one, but maxing out a talented quarterback to do it. He traded for guard Joe Thuney. He signed center Drew Dalman. And, at the rate he’s going, he figures to avoid the Claypool of running backs if and when he signs a veteran to compete with D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson.

Maybe it’s just the timing, with Johnson being hired after all the mistakes were made. But the effect, at least, is that Johnson — while still unproven as an NFL head coach — is making a better GM out of Poles. 

Poles provided more evidence of that Thursday during his appearance on the “Kap and J. Hood Show” on ESPN 1000, when he addressed the Bears’ fluid left tackle situation after they drafted Boston College offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo in the second round (No. 56) on Friday. 

Poles acknowledged that right tackle Darnell Wright could be moved to left tackle to make room for Trapilo — who played right tackle his last two seasons at BC — on the right side. 

He indicated that current starter Braxton Jones, Trapilo and 2024 third-round draft pick Kiran Amegadjie would all compete for the starting spot at left tackle. 

But the best sign of all was that Poles was very emphatic about getting the offensive line’s starting five set before training camp, let alone the regular season — and avoid the experimentations and rotations the Bears used even into the opening games of the regular season that automatically robbed the line of the continuity it badly needed in a formative offense with an unproven or inexperienced quarterback.

“Whatever we settle on, especially when we’re going into training camp, it’s going to be really important to stick with that and be as consistent as possible,” Poles told hosts David Kaplan and Jonathan Hood. “Now, things come up that could change that. But wherever we end up settling going into training camp, we’d like it to be as stable as possible so we’re not flipping guys left and right. … We want to have a solidified o-line as we’re going through the beginning parts of training camp.”

The Bears opened the regular season with a rotation at right guard in two of Poles’ three seasons as GM. Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins rotated in each of the first four games in 2022; Davis and Ryan Bates rotated in the opener against the Titans last year, with Matt Pryor starting in Week 3 against the Colts, then rotating with Davis in Week 4 against the Rams. 

It was just part of the overall continuity issue the Bears have had in all three of Poles’ seasons as GM. Last year was better, but the Bears still used seven different starting combinations, 21 overall combinations and made 23 in-game lineup changes for injury or rotations. 

The injury issue still has to be fixed — the Bears lost 393 offensive line snaps to in-game injuries last season (the Lions lost 24). But just establishing a starting five heading into training camp would be progress for the Bears in Poles’ fourth year as GM.