Did the Chicago Bears and Ryan Poles botch the Larry Ogunjobi situation?
The Chicago Bears and Ryan Poles did not make a mistake with the final decision
I will not sit here and tell you that Justin Jones is going to make a better 3-technique in the Matt Eberflus system than Larry Ogunjobi would have. We saw how long it took Ogunjobi to find a home this offseason and that speaks volumes to what is clearly going on with his foot injury. It was a risk Ryan Poles took knowing that Ogunjobi was hurt just a couple of months prior to their agreement. It was a risk that did not pay off in Poles’ favor.
That said, it was the better decision to let him walk rather than pay him all of that money and risk the team’s future. This team isn’t going to compete for a Super Bowl in 2022 anyway. Ogunjobi landed on his feet with the Steelers and is set to make $8 million dollars this season as long as he reaches certain incentives laid out in his contract. That isn’t nearly the amount of money he was going to make with the Bears, but it’s a decent consolation prize for a one-year deal.
No matter how Justin Jones and the rest of the defensive line perform this season, what is important is the future. Allocating all of that money to the defensive side of the ball, to a player who plays a position that isn’t as valuable as others, is asking for the same mistakes we have already seen from this franchise. It’s time to start putting money into the offensive side of the ball — most specifically the offensive line. Paying an injury-risked player millions would have been the botch job regarding Larry Ogunjobi. The Chicago Bears and Ryan Poles got this one right.