Andy Reid commented on former Chiefs staff member Ryan Poles
Ryan Poles came into the offseason holding the keys to the 2023 NFL Draft. He traded the Chicago Bears leverage for wide receiver D.J. Moore and several critical pieces of draft capital. Poles inherited massive dead cap and a lack of draft picks last offseason from the previous regime. He’s flipped the Bear’s fortunes with potential since. Head coach Andy Reid recently commented during the League Annual Meeting on Poles’ massive trade with the Carolina Panthers.
Poles worked with the Chiefs from 2009 until the Bears hired him last offseason. He had been promoted to executive director of player personnel for the 2019 season. According to Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane with the Chicago Tribune, Reid praised his former colleague for executing the trade for the Bears:
“Ryan did a great job with us,” Reid said Monday. “He worked his tail off. He was very organized. He’s smart. And I think he’s going to do great with Chicago. What he just did with the trade was big.”
“You’re gaining picks,” he said. “And when you gain picks, you gain players. (Ryan) has also shown the trust in the quarterback he has there now (with Justin Fields). And now he gave himself an opportunity to add more players and he didn’t have to move down that far. So they are still in position to get a good football player (at No. 9).”
Poles needs to find talent with their new draft cards
Poles is freeing up future possibilities for the Bears to land elite talent. He hasn’t capitalized on a major asset yet. While Poles brought in a true number-one wide receiver in Moore via the trade, he gave up the Bears guaranteed position to go after a blue-chip player in April. And he accepted a wide receiver coming off of a sub-1,000-yard season as the least valuable player the Panthers were willing to part with in the March trade.
That could be a problem for a front office that has neglected premium positions for one draft and two free agency periods for Matt Eberflus’ coaching staff. But then again, Poles was Kansas City’s director of college scouting when the Chiefs drafted quarterback Patrick Mahomes with the tenth overall pick in 2017. Poles and his staff can really turn heads by getting that good football player with the ninth pick.
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