The Bears hired general manager Ryan Poles largely for his vision — how he would dismantle a sputtering roster and build it into something impressive. The most valuable assets for that endeavor are a surfeit of draft picks and the salary cap, thanks largely to his own maneuvering through trades.
Even though the team was 6-11 and stretched financially, Poles and coach Matt Eberflus didn’t need to clear out everyone they inherited. A key task in speeding up the rebuild was assessing who was worth keeping, especially among the young players.
The most obvious of those pieces was quarterback Justin Fields, and it’s clear they’ll need to commit or move on after this season. But beyond Fields, Poles and Eberflus have had to make swift assessments on several other players they didn’t initially choose.
Some of those calls already have been made. Poles shelled out $50 million on an extension for tight end Cole Kmet, whom ex-GM Ryan Pace took in the second round in 2020. He also moved on from such Pace acquisitions as running back David Montgomery, defensive end Khalil Mack and linebacker Roquan Smith.
In some cases, the Bears had to gauge whether a player was capable of adapting to the organization’s new philosophy and scheme.
“That’s the art of scouting and coaching,” Eberflus said Tuesday. “There’s some good players there. . . . They fit what we believe.”
The most dramatic success story has been their handling of offensive lineman Teven Jenkins. He easily could’ve been swept out as part of their cleanup once Poles and Eberflus decided they saw a far different player than Pace did, but he has become an integral part of their revamped offensive line.
In his last draft with the Bears in 2021, Pace traded up to take Jenkins at No. 39 overall with the belief that he would be their left tackle for a decade. That was not the consensus opinion around the league, however, so Jenkins didn’t go in the first round. Poles was working for the Chiefs at the time, and they were in search of offensive-line help and likely had some concerns about his viability at left tackle even then.
Rather than bail on him, which looked like a real possibility a year ago, Eberflus’ staff converted Jenkins into an effective starting right guard, then moved him to left guard this year. He could’ve been yet another Bears draft bust, but to his and the team’s credit, Jenkins looks like he has a long career ahead at his new position.
“Unfortunate things happened the way they have, and I’ve hit the injury slump or whatever early [in my] career,” Jenkins said. “Overall, it wasn’t going too well for me at first, [but] now I’m feeling like it’s starting to pick up, and I’m starting to get going. I wish I had this my rookie year.
“It’s just accepting different challenges and not running away from them, really.”
The Bears were similarly prudent in seeing the value wide receiver Darnell Mooney could add to their new offense and that guard/center Cody Whitehair and safety Eddie Jackson still had enough left to justify some of the roster’s largest salary-cap commitments.
Based on how Poles has raved about Mooney, it’s likely he’ll try to sign him to an extension once they see he’s fully back to the player he was before his season-ending ankle injury in 2022. Poles also has talked about cornerback Jaylon Johnson as a pillar of their secondary, though they haven’t agreed on a new contract yet.
There’s no doubt Pace left Poles a lot of problems, but he left some potential gifts, too.
In some cases, though, turning those potential losses into gains required creativity, flexibility and expertise that the Bears didn’t show during the Pace/Matt Nagy era. They weren’t automatic — certainly not in Jenkins’ case. Poles and Eberflus need to show the same good judgment as they decide on Fields and the other holdovers.
