Hot seat? Ryan Poles enters draft No. 4 with the wind at his back

Bears general manager Ryan Poles is on the hot seat in the court of public opinion if not in the eyes of team president Kevin Warren heading into the 2025 season.

Poles, in fact, was under fire last season — Year 3 for him — when the Bears went 5-12 in quarterback Caleb Williams’ rookie season. Despite some obvious issues, it seemed a little odd that the GM who underwent a massive teardown/rebuild in Year 1 and engineered the draft trade that netted Williams, DJ Moore and Darnell Wright in Year 2 would get just three years, after the GM who resolutely drafted Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes (and Adam Shaheen over George Kittle) got seven years. But timing is everything for everybody in the NFL.

And the evidence of Poles’ poor judgment was adding up. His fingerprints were on every one of the Bears’ mistakes that set them back in 2025: hiring Matt Eberflus, drafting Velus Jones, acquiring Chase Claypool, signing Nate Davis, hiring Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator, building the offensive line. Poles’ cherished locker room culture that was supposed to protect the Bears from disasters like last season arguably contributed to it — instead of bucking up and responding to the Hail Mary debacle against the Commanders, the Bears lost their next nine games.

In exit meetings after last season, Poles already was working on correcting a fundamental evaluation error in building a good locker room — good character doesn’t always mean leadership.

“I’ve also challenged some of our guys to take the next step to lead as well,” Poles said in the end-of-season press conference at Halas Hall. “I was in the same category and some of our guys were too … ‘Should I say something about this? Should I step up?’ And I encouraged all our guys [that] we’ve got to get to this place.

“We’ve been together long enough. There’s continuity. We aren’t going to take things personally anymore amongst each other — both in the front office and then football operations, but also in the locker room and coaching. We’ve got to be able to have healthy friction to say, ‘Hey, that’s not the way we’re supposed to do it. Let’s clean up and get better,’ because that will show up later in the season.”

Bears coach Ben Johnson (left) and general manager Ryan Poles (right) speak at the press conference to introduce guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett (not pictured) on March 12 at Halas Hall.

It remains to be seen if Poles can instill that kind of leadership in his locker room. But that he recognized the issue and is trying to fix it is the key to Poles’ survival — can he learn from his mistakes? 

So far so good. His first coaching hire was Matt Eberflus. He second was Ben Johnson. His first big swing at upgrading the offensive line was Nate Davis. This year it was Joe Thuney. There’s a long, long way to go, but Ryan Poles is trending in the right direction. 

Now comes the draft and Poles’ offseason acquisitions — starting with the hiring of Johnson — have given Poles some latitude, not only with the 10th overall pick but No. 39, No. 41 and No. 72. 

Though the Bears need help on both sides of the ball, Poles seems fixated on giving Johnson the best chance to succeed — by getting Johnson’s side of the ball right first. It’s probably not a coincidence that so many Lions draft picks have succeeded in Johnson’s offense — Jackson (third round, No. 75 overall) in 2020; right tackle Penei Sewell (1-7) and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (4-112) in 2021; wide receiver Jameson Williams (1-12) in 2022; and running back Jahmyr Gibbs (1-12) and tight end Sam Laporta (2-34) in 2023. 

So even after adding Thuney, center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson in the free-agency window, this draft still figures to be weighted toward the offense. After surviving the hot seat in 2024, Poles surely knows his survival is tied to Johnson’s success. After a number of misjudgments in his first three years, he might still have a key quality to becoming a winning NFL general manager: He learns well.