The Bears are in the process of hiring Chiefs assistant director of player personnel Ryan Poles as their next general manager (Twitter link via ESPN’s Adam Schefter). The former player in Chicago is coming back, this time to lead the franchise’s front office.
Poles had gotten a request from the Bears for a second interview earlier this week. The fact that he was a finalist for the job wasn’t a surprise, given the interest he was also receiving from the Vikings and Giants. The 37-year-old was also a finalist for the GM job in Carolina last year.
Widely seen as one of the top-up-and-coming executives in the league, Poles has worked his way up the ladder in Kansas City very quickly. After starting out on the college scouting side of the franchise, he has recently worked alongside GM Brett Veach on a much wider scale. Still, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer notes that Poles will face “a learning curve”, given that he has yet to handle player contracts, among other things, directly. Overall, though, this is being viewed as a very smart hire, leading to optimism that the Bears can move forward from the previous Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace regime and return to playoff contention. As The Draft Scout’s Matt Miller points out (via Twitter), the Chiefs will receive one third-round compensatory pick this year and next as a result of the hire.
This news represents the second GM hire so far, after the Giants brought in Joe Schoen. With Poles hired, that leaves Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the vice president of football operations for the Browns, as the only remaining finalist for the Vikings’ GM vacancy. He is now the favorite to take over in Minnesota. Be sure to keep up to date with all the latest using our GM Search Tracker.
Good for Poles! I hope it works well for him!
Should be a draft compensation for the Chiefs I believe.
Promotion so no compensation?
I’m reading we (Chiefs) get a 3rd this year and next year. Will be interesting to see if it’s true.
If it were a lateral move, then there would be compensation. But since he’s getting “promoted” I don’t think anything will happen.
I guess I missed it earlier. Adam already states the Chiefs get a third this year and next year.
IF, EB gets hired as a head coach, the Chiefs would get a third rounder in the 24 draft.
Have you ever heard of any team getting compensation for hiring another team’s OC or DC? Head coach, yes.
Edit point: Hiring their OC or DC to be the head coach.
You need to follow better sources, dude.
This doesn’t even sound logical.
Sounds like the NFL will compensate the Chiefs not the Bears.
(i) The employer-club of a minority employee who has been hired by another club as its Head Coach or Primary Football Executive (General Manager) shall receive Draft choice compensation in the form of a compensatory Draft pick in the third round in each of the next two Drafts for an employee hired as either a Head Coach or Primary Football Executive, or for the next three Drafts if it has two employees hired for both positions. The reference to the hiring of employees into “both positions” could be by the same club or different clubs. The following will apply to the Draft choice compensation:
a. Any compensatory Draft picks awarded pursuant to this Policy will be at the end of the third round following all compensatory Draft picks awarded to clubs pursuant to Appendix V of the NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement.
b. If multiple clubs are awarded compensatory Draft picks pursuant to this Policy, then the order of those picks at the end of the third round will follow the original selection order for that Draft established prior to any trades or other adjustments.
(ii) The employer-club shall be eligible to receive this Draft choice compensation if:
a. The minority employee hired as a Head Coach or Primary Football Executive has been employed by the employer-club for a minimum of two full seasons; and
b. The minority employee is not the Head Coach or Primary Football Executive of the employer-club and is hired into the same position with the new club. There can be no break in employment between clubs.
No compensation. It’s a promotion.
wtf, great more lost picks.
Not how compensatory picks work. They would be added picks at the end of the round.
No genius. KC gets comp pics because he’s a minority being promoted. Bears lose nothing.
You guys should probably read everything *before* commenting.
I’ve seen it from a number of different sources that the Chiefs will receive a compensatory 3rd round pick (it doesn’t come *from* the Bears) in this upcoming draft as well as next year’s.
Correct. This is part of the minority development push by the NFL. KC basically gets two free picks at the end (or very close to it) of the 3rd round, one this year, one next year.
Bears fans should be hoping that the Raiders like Champ Kelly as their GM; we’d get the same, and we could certainly use another 3rd rounder this year. And if Kwesi becomes the Vikings GM, Cleveland will get the same.
This initiative only applies to hires for Head Coach or GM, not coordinators, and the reward of the picks goes to the team that developed the coach or exec who gets the position.
Yes 2023 & 2024 3rd rounder
Not from the Bears.
No reason to think this wasn’t a solid hire, at least not yet.
Former player, worked his way up through organization that is looking like a dynasty.
Bears have one of the best contract guys in Cliff Stein, so I don’t think that should be an issue.
Good, solid hire . He has been the right hand man to the Chiefs GM ( Brett Veach) for a while and is responsible for many of the players drafted by the Chiefs. Look for Dan Quinn to emerge as one the favorites for the HD Coaching job. Poles is said to be a big fan.
I’m tired of KC people in Chicago. Mark Hatley, Phil Emery, Matt Nagy, none of them made the Bears better.
Who cares where he worked before? So just because the last person we hired from the KC Chiefs ( Matt Nagy) sucked, we should not hire anyone ever from them, even though they are one of the elite teams in the NFL? Dumb
Coach will be from KC – Eric B. Will help Fields out. Now get a o-line. Just to ND, Wisconsin or Iowa to get linemen, playoff teams had tons of them.
If Poles wanted Bienemy, he would have already been considered. I’m certain every top candidate was asked for a list of coaches.
Sounds like Quinn to Flores.
Gee of all the guys they could of hired for free, They hire a guy who costs 2 draft picks they don’t have. What a stupid organization. I didn’t think they could get any dumber. But I was wrong wasn’t I.
Are you from the 815? The picks, if granted, would be compensatory from the league not the Bears.
I know your upset that they hired a “Rooney Rule” guy and all, but the Bears aren’t giving up any picks.
The Chiefs are getting a compensatory pick.
I know you’re a McCaskey but they hired another guy from the Chiefs, Which worked out real well didn’t it. All they have to do is hire the guy from the Saints as HC and you have the same stupid situation you just got out of. Like I said, Morons.
You are aware GM and head coach are two completely different positions?
Should the Bears not sign free agents from the Chiefs? That’s what your “logic” suggests.
What GM should they have hired, in your expert opinion? Someone with less melanin For your tastes?
Don’t worry. Every fringe player the Chiefs have will soon be here, With a big raise of course. You are aware of course that your nose is a true shade of brown for backing a family with possibly the worst success rate possible for a big market team? Inquiring minds can only wonder…..Why???
We get it.
You don’t like people who have brown noses, which is why you don’t like this hire.
You have made that abundantly clear.
I don’t care if he’s purple, As long as he’s not as lame as I expect he will be. I get it, You want to make me a racist when all I want to prove is how dumb your family is. Typical McCaskey deflect blame in other directions while stuffing your pockets. Well, I’m not dumb as the rest of most of this city. I only hate morons, Which makes you number one.
Yes, why hire from a successful team coming off a recent SB win? Do you listen to yourself? I am assuming hiring from the Jags, Jets, and Giants would have been such a better move. Also, would you say the same thing if Reid was hired to be HC? We hired a coach from the Chiefs before that didn’t win a SB, so hell no, let’s find somebody else. Such a clownish view.
I like the move. Chiefs seem to do well with their player moves both in the draft and free agency. Last year they cut most of their O line and rebuilt it into a better unit quickly. They seem to find decent offensive skill position players in later rounds. I also like that he is a young up and coming talent evaluator that was sought after by other teams. Takes away some of the McCaskey and Phillips evaluation baggage. Though my first choices for HC were Daboll (for Fields) or Caldwell (for stability), Quinn and Eberflus seem like solid choices if they can bring with them a solid OC. That are also sought after and being granted second interviews elsewhere so again at least other teams see value with them. Also heard that Quinn’s proposed staff is top notch which makes sense based upon his years at HC.
idk about this, could’ve been worse I guess? we’ll have to wait a see…
He’s highly regarded, which means that it’s not just George and Co. that like him, but lots of other football people. That gives me some cause for hope on this one.
Choosing a GM with no experience at handling player contracts is considered a smart hire? I have a bad feeling the Bears will have another Mike Glennon financial disaster soon.
I expect one of the things we should see happen soon is that Poles hires a ‘contract czar’. Someone like Omar Khan, but his hire would be a lateral move, which the Steelers could block.
If Poles goes into this assuming he can do everything, he’ll likely have issues with contracts. On the other hand, Pace had plenty of time to rework Fuller’s contract, but let it linger until he had to cut him. GB put a poison pill in the last year of the contract they offered him, and we matched. Pace never dealt with it, and last year we didn’t have an adequate CB2. Pace could have solved this easily with a new contract for Fuller 2-3 years ago, but he dropped the ball.
I’m sure Poles is inheriting more than a few contracts like that one. Let’s hope he is from the school of not pushing money off until future years, but paying fairly now for what you need, so that you can do the same next year.
That has more to do with talent evaluation. So, you would rather have a finance guy, than a talent evaluator?
The bears will give up 2 3rd round picks so he Better be something good .. The bears should use this draft to move back and grab more picks for next years draft . They also need to look at trading away players with value and should start with Mack , what sucks is they could have traded Mack back to the raiders this year and probably recouped all of the picks they traded to get him and then some
The Bears are not losing picks. Compensatory picks are just added to the end of the round.
No lost picks for the Bears.
Well Georgie, let’s see if you screwed this one up also. The last guy the bears hired from KC sucked. Did this guy only cost $15/hour? You and the family should get a volleyball team to manage. Nobody would care. BTW how did the Mccaskey family make their money ?
Would you rather we hired people from other franchises? I hear the former Jacksonville head coach is available, or maybe we should steal from Detroit’s brain trust, ….
Seriously, winning programs produce winning coaches and execs. Not every one will work out perfectly, but your odds are way better hiring from a winning program than a losing one.
Yes, I wouldn’t hire Reid. He has that Chief’s stink all over him.