3 reasons to give Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles a break on first draft

The critics are out in full force over the Chicago Bears’ 2022 NFL draft. The draft was the first for Ryan Poles and is the start of a new era. While Poles can be criticized for certain decisions, it seems as though his first draft is being put under the microscope far too brightly.

What fans and the media have to realize is that while this was Ryan Poles’ first go at the draft, this is not how Poles envisions his drafts going. Poles was dealt a poor hand by Ryan Pace, and the realization was that this year is much more about digging out of a hole than climbing to the top.

Fans need to give Ryan Poles a bit more benefit of the doubt right now.

3. Ryan Poles did not have much draft capital

Ryan Poles did not trade his first-round pick this year, Ryan Pace did. So, when you look at the Bears’ draft and think that they did not pick a big-name impact player, that is not quite the fault of Poles. Poles had a pick at 39 and used Khalil Mack to turn that into another pick at 48.

Fans wanted Poles to go offense with those picks, but Poles is not building for next year, he is starting year one of his build. He is not drafting for needs on the current roster. He is drafting the best players available for the next five years.

Beyond that, at pick 39, it is not like he can just force the top wideouts to fall to him. Seven wide receivers were gone when he made his first pick. If you are in the top ten, and you have five guys with elite grades, it could be easier to sort. However, if Poles has a round one grade on Kyler Gordon and a round three grade on his next wideout, what do you want him to do?

Beyond that, Poles had just three picks on day three and turned that into eight picks. Fans seem disappointed because there is a lot of depth, but not many big names. He could not turn those day three picks into top 50 players. What did you expect?

The best hope is that one or two of these guys pan out. Once again, this was not the choice of Poles but something he had to deal with. Given the three picks, he had, turning that into more than twice as many shots is impressive no matter how you break it down.