Is Ryan Poles taking a page out of Ryan Pace’s Chicago Bears playbook?
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The Chicago Bears followed a similar strategy regarding the 2020 TE room
Ryan Pace did something somewhat similar with the tight end position in 2020. It became a running joke with how many tight ends the Bears had on the roster. It was over-analyzed by far, but nonetheless, it did somewhat resemble the kicking tryout situation in regards to the number of players brought in at the position. At one point, I believe the team had a total of 10 tight ends on the roster. However, once the season started, it was obviously back down to a normal amount.
National media guys started questioning the approach to this position in the same way they did the 2019 kicking competition.
Bears are out of control with tight ends
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) April 25, 2020
Jimmy Graham
Cole Kmet
Demetrius Harris
Adam Shaheen
Ben Braunecker
Jesper Horsted
J.P. Holtz
Eric Saubert
Dax Raymond
Darion Clark
To be fair, I don’t think they were too comparable, but that doesn’t stop the poking fun at a team when doing things a bit unorthodox. That 2020 season by the way saw Jimmy Graham score eight touchdowns and Cole Kmet showed some promise as a rookie. It is easier to joke about the situation though and it once again was a step in the right direction based on what the team saw production-wise from the tight end position compared to 2019. That year, not a single tight end gained over 100 yards receiving and they only combined for two touchdowns.
That brings us to Ryan Poles and the wide receiver position.