You have got to give Ryan Poles his credit for making the move to land Jeffery Simmons well before this year's NFL trade deadline, but the Chicago Bears needed one more piece to be solidified as a Super Bowl contender.
Chicago desperately needed to make a move for another outside cornerback, but as the deadline officially passed, Poles failed to make a move.
The Bears did not go out and get one of several intriguing options and will, unfortunately, press on with the likes of Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson atop that room, alongside rookie Malik Muhammad.
The Bears officially need one of Jaylon Johnson or Tyrique Stevenson to solidify an outside CB starting role
The aforementioned rookie will wind up holding down Stevenson's starting spot when he's fully healthy, and that'll likely come right out of the bye week in Week 11 as the Bears take on the New Orleans Saints.
Muhammad has missed the previous two games due to a toe injury, but the expectation is that he'll be back against the Saints.
Meanwhile, Johnson is the presumed second starter on the outside and did himself a favor with his pick-six against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Still, Johnson's play has been nowhere near good enough for the Bears to depend on him as a starter. That's why fans wanted so badly to see Poles go get another starting-caliber cornerback.
Instead, Poles either passed on a few decent options or he deemed the price too high for what he was willing to pay.
A Bears-Nahshon Wright reunion made sense, among other trade candidates, before the deadline
Obviously, one of the top candidates in the eyes of Bears fans was to go get current New York Jets cornerback Nahshon Wright, who has not been utilized out on the East coast.
With the Bears, last year, he posted a career season and experienced a true breakout as he intercepted five passes, recovered three fumbles while forcing two. He also broke up a career-best 11 passes in the process.
Wright knows the Bears' defense and Dennis Allen surely got the best out of him. It made too much sense for Chicago to bring him back, so what was the holdup with New York? Why couldn't the two sides come to a deal?
If the Jets were expecting any more than a sixth rounder, or if Poles was unwilling to part with said draft capital, then someone messed up big time.
Other options Poles could have considered included Riq Woolen of the Philadelphia Eagles, Donte Jackson of the Los Angeles Chargers or Alontae Taylor of the Tennessee Titans. Even Kristian Fulton of the Kansas City Chiefs could have made sense, since he's no longer in the starting rotation.
Free agent cornerbacks the Bears might consider
The free agent pool isn't exactly swimming with talent, and for good reason. Here are a few names Poles could look to bring in:
Trevon Diggs
Marshon Lattimore
Adoree Jackson'
Eli Apple
Corey Ballentine
Jeff Okudah
Like I said, the pool has dried up. All of the above names are way beyond their days of being a significant contributor, if you could even consider all of them on the list to have ever qualified as being that.
It sure looks like the Bears are going to have to live with Johnson and Muhammad, and pray that neither one gets hurt, so that Stevenson doesn't end up playing a major role.
This was a massive miss by Poles after landing arguably the biggest trade deadline deal of the year.
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