There's been no shortage of praise for Ryan Poles this offseason. For a second there, his seat was starting to warm up. A run of ... questionable ... personnel moves and the whole 'hiring Matt Eberflus' thing didn't look too great on the resume, and Bears fans – if you can believe it – were starting to get impatient.
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Then Poles hired Ben Johnson, traded for basically an entire new offensive line, and did a decent job finding value in some of the later rounds in this year's draft. These past few months have gotten him back into Chicago's good graces, and there's generally an excitement surrounding the Bears once again (as opposed to all those other offseason when there isn't). The most recent example comes courtesy of Ruben Hyppolite II, who had some fun things to say about the Bears while doing the podcast rounds recently.
Ruben Hyppolite II has plenty of good things to say about the team that drafted him
"Every year is a new year," he said. "And I've known that, playing in college. But especially in that league, it's very hard to win game. Doesn't matter what team you are – winning is hard. It's a lot of great competition. It's a great opportunity for us. Like you said, we have a brand new coaching staff. I believe in Mr. Poles, and his mindset, and Mr. Cunningham. I spoke with them when I was on a visit up there. I believe in their mindset and their vision, as far as what they want the organization to look like and all that. I spoke with Coach Allen, Coach Smith, and Coach Johnson, and all those guys. It's great things about to happen in Chicago. I'm very excited to learn, mostly, because I don't know anything about nothing. I'm coming in with that mindset and attitude to gain trust from everybody, learn, and be the best version of myself daily. I'm excited for this process that's about to kick off. Can't wait to see where it goes."
I was getting ready to be overly snarky about how, yeah, someone who just got drafted to the *NFL* is probably a big fan of the guy who made that decision, but Hyppolite was just too damn charming for me to feel okay doing that. I'm officially on board. Whether or not it translates on to the field doesn't matter now – that's exactly the attitude you love hearing from a rookie. Maybe Poles really does know what he's doing.