The Chicago Bears had an offseason that fans understood, but most did not get excited about. Ryan Poles entered a new situation where he had a poor cap situation, and a lack of a first-round draft pick, so he did not have great pieces to maneuver.
Some were understanding of the situation while others took it as a chance to bash the new GM. Well, even with a quiet offseason compared to expectations, Ryan Poles saw huge returns from these four players.
4. Dominique Robinson
The person writing this was as high on Dominique Robinson coming into the draft as any reasonable draft writer was. Still, even I did not see this coming from the debut of the pass rusher from Miami (OH).
The reason in which I wrote about him pre-draft was about his ceiling, more than how he could impact games in week one. Robinson is long, fast, and twitchy, but was a wide receiver as recently as the pandemic year.
That is what caused him to fall into the fifth round. As a round-five dart throw, it was well worth the shot, and most prognostications saw him as a bit of a project, who may help on special teams, but will struggle to get on the field as a rookie.
That changed immediately when he recorded a sack in the first quarter. Robinson was in the mix for another half sack and added seven tackles into the mix. I wrote about how Robert Quinn and Al-Quadin Muhammad are not great run defenders, and the team needed someone to step up. Robinson did just that in the run game, easing the load on the two starters.
If you drew up the best outcome from a Dominique Robinson debut, you may not have got the stats he put up. Keep an eye on what he could become, because a lot of the plays he made were all hustle, so you know he will keep playing.
3. Dante Pettis
Ryan Poles did not do enough for the wide receiver room, they said. Okay, it is also fair to say that Dante Pettis had just one catch in the game. Yes, it was basically a busted play as well. Still, talk about a catch. He went 51 yards to the house and made the play that flipped the game.
Maybe Pettis is not the long-term answer at receiver, but Ryan Poles is giving him a shot and he has done nothing but prove that he deserves to keep playing. He got on the field a decent amount and was also the starting punt returner.
He is only the role for now because of Velus Jones and his injury, but still, the team needed someone to step into the spot and he has been reliable for that. This is not some blow away addition, but it is easy to say that the Chicago Bears do not win on Sunday without Dante Pettis.
2. Jaquan Brisker
This is one that was much more expected. If you watched Jaquan Brisker at Penn State last season it was easy to say he was NFL-ready. During the preseason he was one of the best players on the field and looked like someone a bit too good for the preseason.
So, it is not a surprise that when the lights got bright in his NFL debut he fell in line and played like he always does. Brisker was tabbed with four tackles, but he was near the ball often.
He made big plays in the run game and was in on a hit with Jaylon Johnson to bump a ball free and cause a turnover.
Beyond his play, he is also freeing things up for Eddie Jackson. Brisker is a sure tackler near the football, and it causes Jackson to play in his playmaker role, and not worry about tackling in the box.
The compounding effects of the addition could be as big, or bigger than the addition itself if you think that Jackson can get back to his old ways.
Most fans and media wanted the team to go another route beyond defense in the first two rounds, but Ryan Poles stuck to his board and took the best player he had graded. It is also smarter to do that than reach for someone you do not believe in.
1. Equanimeous St. Brown
Is this the Equanimeous St. Brown career season? Just saying, we called it already. Okay, like Pettis, this is a bit of an overreaction, but how about this, St. Brown doubled his career total in touchdown catches and tied his career high in that make on just one catch Sunday.
Yes, it was just one catch for 18 yards and a TD as the final tally, but for a player who has a career-high of 21 catches for 328 yards, he is on his way to competing with that mark. Some of the ways in which ESB is going to rack up stats is because he will just be on the field.
Why is that? Because he can block. Equanimeous St. Brown is the best blocking wideout on the roster, and it is why Luke Getsy brought him here. That is why he was on the field, and he sold that he was blocking, which caused the secondary to shift his eyes away from him.
This opened him up for the big catch. One big catch is not a game-changing moment, but again, it is the reality that Poles was not just adding big names. He saw how Pettis had a skill set that fits, and ESB had a skill set that fit, and thought that he could piece together a wide receiver corps. So far, he put together a team that got by in week one.