Ryan Poles calls assistant GM ‘critical,’ says he’ll evaluate rest of front office

Before Ryan Poles took the Bears’ general manager job, he told chairman George McCaskey he wanted an assistant GM — something Ryan Pace never had.

By Patrick Finley

Bears general manager Ryan Poles speaks about what the he hopes to bring to the Bears organization during a press conference at Halas Hall.

Before Ryan Poles took the Bears’ general manager job, he told chairman George McCaskey he wanted an assistant GM — something Ryan Pace never had.

On Saturday, he hired the Eagles’ Ian Cunningham.

“I thought it was important to bring someone else in with even more experience from a different place,” Poles said. “Ian’s background with the Ravens and then the Eagles . . . he’s seen a lot under Howie Roseman and Ozzie Newsome, and to add that experience is critical.”

As for the rest of the front office, Poles will take his time and make changes after the draft in late April.

“I want to evaluate the evaluators,” he said. “I want to know who’s in the front office before I start shuffling things around. I think that’s important because there are good scouts in every organization. . . . If you poll the road scouts who have boots on the ground, there’s a lot of good scouts in this organization. It’s just how we get the process where their thoughts and ideas and information are getting put out there the right way, so we can use them to make decisions.”

The Bears have “great analytic people,” Poles said, and he plans to use them. He compared analytics to the traffic app, Waze. He uses Waze on his rides home even though he knows the way by heart. It might tell him there’s an accident or a faster time.

“Why would we not use that information?” he said.

Chemistry test

Having already hired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, coach Matt Eberflus said he’s looking to find the right mix of coaches on his staff.

“Chemistry is getting people to work together with the right mindset, having a partnership, having a brotherhood with another guy,” he said. “[It’s] important to bring the right people together in terms of the guy, the man, the coach.”

He said he wants offense, defense and special-teams coaches to “cross the aisle” and help each other. Asked if he preferred experience, he wouldn’t say — although it wouldn’t be surprising to see the first-time head coach hire a former head coach on his staff.