Ryan Poles leaves no stone unturned in improving Bears' 53-man roster

As preseason finally ended on Sunday, the NFL teams face difficult decisions paring down their roster to 53 by 4PM EST on Tuesday. The Chicago Bears made two trades, neither a blockbuster move, but immediately addressed two areas of need before the start of the season. First, they acquired defensive end Darrell Taylor from Seattle for a 2025 sixth-round pick.

After coming very close to acquiring Matthew Judon as many saw on the recent episode of HBO's "Hard Knocks", some may feel underwhelmed by this trade. But Poles got a younger pass rusher with potential to be more productive than extending Judon's contract and crippling their salary cap.

A former second-round pick out of Tennessee in 2020, Taylor missed his entire rookie season. Since then, he has registered 21.5 sacks, 90 QB pressures, and 34 QB hits in the last three years. He had a career-high 9.5 sacks in 2022. And all it costed was a sixth-round pick.

The Bears' defensive end depth chart features a Pro-Bowler in Montez Sweat, one rookie who showed promise in pre-season but is still raw in Austin Booker. And in between, there are plenty of unproven players who are fighting to stay on the team in Dominique Robinson and Daniel Hardy who had a productive pre-season. With the addition of Taylor, DeMarcus Walker could see more action inside this year while Robinson and Hardy could be fighting to make the 53-men roster.

Then, on Saturday, the Bears acquired defensive tackle Chris Williams and a 2025 seventh-round pick from Cleveland for a 2025 sixth-round pick shortly after head coach Matt Eberflus showed real concerns about the lack of depth at the defensive tackle position.

Williams is being reunited with Eberflus, whom he played for at Indianapolis from 2020-21 when Eberflus was a defensive coordinator. He had a great pre-season game against the Minnesota Vikings recently, where he had two sacks, including one that resulted in a safety. If anything, he should be very familiar with Eberflus's "H.I.T.S" principles and could see an increased role immediately with Zacch Pickens out with an injury.

These trades made by Ryan Poles could payoff big this upcoming season.

Poles have made plenty of trades and free-agent signings since he became the general manager two years ago. The biggest and the most important trade is the one he fleeced the Carolina Panthers into trading up for their first overall pick last March. The trade garnered DJ Moore, Darnell Wright, Tyrique Stevenson, and now Caleb Williams.

The rest of trade history has been a mixbag. He misjudged badly on the Chase Claypool trade the same day he unloaded Roquan Smith to Baltimore two years ago. He redeemed himself with a trade for Montez Sweat during last year's trade deadline, but he also traded for veteran offensive lineman Dan Feeney, who barely played at all last season.

At least you have to give Ryan Poles credit for doing all he can to make the Bears a better team this season. He knows this team is ready to win now. He knew Matt Eberflus' defense needed help and addressed it promptly. The Bears got two fairly young players, who not only add depth, but potential to be productive beyond this season and stay with the team like Akiem Hicks.

Hicks played for New Orleans and New England before landing with the Bears back in 2016. He went on to play with the Bears from 2016-2021 and was both productive and popular with the fans. He was one of the few signings made by then-general Ryan Pace that was successful.

Many fans tend to care only about big free-agent signings or trades. But do not underestimate these small acquisitions that could make a huge difference. Because of salary cap restrictions, you can not have a household name in every position in the NFL. It is a long shot for either Taylor or Williams to turn into the next Akiem Hicks. But if one of them does turn into another Akiem Hicks success story, that will silence his critics even more.