Ryan Poles has had a fascinating start to his tenure as GM. Within weeks, her two most prominent free agency endeavors fell through. Defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi agreed to a deal with the team but failed physically. Guard Ryan Bates agreed to an offer sheet with them, but the Buffalo Bills agreed. Their only other notable deal was Lucas Patrick signing on to become their new center. Needless to say, not everything went as the Chicago Bears had hoped.
But Poland understands he cannot afford to lament these missed opportunities. He has to move to contingency plans and always look for different ways to improve his squad. Any GM caught on the wrong foot ends up being a failure. During his interview with Bears media in Florida for the NFL owners’ meetings, he admitted that the Bates news (which had been released during the press) was unfortunate. That said, it meant the money he had set aside for this deal could be used elsewhere.
According to Adam Hoge, he even had a certain group of positions in mind.
We got a blunt live reaction when Ryan Poles found out #Bills Matching Ryan Bates’ offer: “It stinks.”
He mentioned that money/capacity space could potentially be used on a CB now.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) March 28, 2022
That’s not too surprising. Cornerback was a source of frustration for the Bears last season. Other than Jaylon Johnson, they had no one they could call reliable. Artie Burns, Duke Shelley, and Kindle Vildor took turns being either inconsistent or just plain bad. Rookie Thomas Graham Jr. showed some flash, but he’s an unknown quantity. It makes sense, Poland, and head coach Matt Eberflus would prefer some veteran experience to be added to the mix.
There’s no shortage of that in the market, even though free agency is now weeks old. Several notable names remain available.
- Steven Nelson
- Janoris Jenkins
- Patrick Petersen
- Chris Harris Jr.
- Kyle Fuller
- Bryce Callahan
- Xavier Rhodes
- Tavon Young
Fuller and Callahan, of course, have previous relationships with the bears. Rhodes revived his career under Eberflus in Indianapolis. Jenkins, Peterson and Harris are former Pro Bowlers. Young might well be one of the better nickel corners in the league.
Tavon Young will be absent from Baltimore pic.twitter.com/53pOGvehV3
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) March 10, 2022
Steven Nelson starts early😳
pic.twitter.com/xPoLf6p94E— PFF (@PFF) December 2, 2020
Ryan Poles is currently taking a cautious line
He wants to improve the squad but isn’t ready to break the bank. He has been disciplined in his approach so far. Many call it conservative. In any case, the GM isn’t done adding to the list, assuming the price is right. Of the above names, Jenkins and Young are the two that make the most sense. Not necessarily because they’re the best, but because they’re street free agents. That means their former teams trimmed them so they wouldn’t count against the Bears’ compensatory draft pick formula.
Jenkins was okay with the Tennessee Titans last season but was showing signs of his age and allowed for a 100.2 passer rating. He will be 34 in October, an advanced number especially for this position. Young is a much tastier 28er and played in every game last season. It also allowed for a far better passer rating of 85.4. The central theme for him are takeaways. Young has just two interceptions in 50 games. That might not suit Eberflus and his defender.
It will be interesting to see which way they go.
Ryan Poles tends not to care about deception. What he said is probably true. That means it’s a safe bet that the Bears will add another cornerback sometime before next month’s NFL draft.
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