Ryan Poles has officially finished his first year as the General Manager of the Chicago Bears. While this year will truly be the first where he can come in, spend his cap space, and use his draft picks, we did see how Poles maneuvered plenty of decisions.
We have been grading each move individually this offseason, and now we will add all of them up, weigh it out, and come up with a cumulative grade.
What were the big decisions that Ryan Poles made?
The Chicago Bears GM had his tenure start off rocky.
During the first portion of free agency Ryan Poles had plans for Brian Allen at center, Ryan Bates at guard, and Larry Ogunjobi at the 3T. He had to move to his backup plan on all three. In the case of Allen, it was as simple as a player staying where he just won a Super Bowl.
Still, Ogunjobi really hurt Poles because he wasted two days of free agency assuming the deal was done only to scramble to sign Justin Jones after a physical. Still, we gave his ability to handle the chaos a B+.
For Ryan Bates, the question is whether he should have bid a bit higher, and put the Buffalo Bills in a spot where they could not sign him. Or, the real question is why were they interested in Bates when Teven Jenkins is their best lineman and he plays the role that Bates would have had. The Bates attempt speaks to his lack of trust in Jenkins, which dings him but he got a C+. The early grade comes to a B-