5 worst decisions Ryan Poles made in year one as Chicago Bears GM
The first year of being a General Manager will always be a tough year. It is probably valuable that the Chicago Bears were in a position where Ryan Poles was able to watch a rebuild and learn as his mistakes were not completely crushing the team. Still, after we wrote about his best moves, you had to know that a fair look at some of his worst decisions was coming.
What are the five worst decisions that Ryan Poles has made?
The Chicago Bears should have drafted George Pickens
This is one that will sit with Chicago Bears fans for a while. It also seems to be a topic of conversation every time George Pickens makes a big play, which happens to be a lot. Pickens had over 800 yards receiving this season and went 52 overall in the 2022 NFL draft. He was the fourth-best in yards by rookie wideouts, and that is with Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky as his quarterback.
This means the Chicago Bears passed on a receiver twice, and he had over 300 more yards than any Bears wide receiver and he is just 21 years old. This is a big issue. What makes the decision crazy is that everyone, pundits, fans, and experts, all said that wide receiver was a huge need. They all said that George Pickens was the best on the board. They all said that Pickens would fit with Justin Fields.
When you see that a lot of what Fields did was deep balls, and jump balls, and a lot of what Pickens did was deep balls and jump balls, it has to make Bears fans feel sick knowing what they missed out on.
After George Pickens was Alec Pierce, who had a nice rookie season. Still, after that, it was Skyy Moore, Velus Jones, Jalen Tolbert, David Bell, Danny Gray, Erik Eziknama, Romeo Doubs, and Calvin Austin just to round out the fourth round.
Doubs hit 400 yards, and he joins Skyy Moore and David Bell as the only wideouts drafted after Pickens to hit 200 yards. Pickens doubled the best wide-out taken after, and had about four times as much as any third-round or later wide-out.
There was a tier drop after Pickens and Ryan Poles did not see it. While no receivers were drafted after Pickens with success, the list of cornerbacks taken after Kyler Gordon is pretty impressive.
Cordale Flott, Marcus Jones, Coby Bryant, Josh Williams, Pepe Williams, and Tariq Woolen went between pick 81-153 and were taken in that order. All of these cornerbacks were better than Kyler Gordon this season.
They may not all have the same upside, but in the case of someone like Woolen, it is hard to see Kyler Gordon ever being that good. Even Bryant and Jones have flashed in the slot. Josh Williams is playing in the playoffs.
Ryan Poles had to know the pockets in the draft and that he could wait on a cornerback, but could not wait on a wide receiver. Pickens fell right into his lap and every wideout after he struggled. Gordon was looked as a questionable decision at the time because of the need for a guy like Pickens, and that remains the case now.