Top 3 takeaways from Ryan Poles’ pre-draft press conference

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Just like many of us, Ryan Poles watches home improvement shows and creates mock drafts.

The first-year Bears general manager shared this information and, surprisingly, a lot more in his pre-draft press conference on Tuesday afternoon. 

Here are some of the top takeaways from Poles’ press conference. 

1. No Rebuild Here 

Let’s revisit how Poles brought up home improvement shows. He was asked if the Bears are rebuilding or if there is another term that he would use.

“The rebuild thing is like super sensitive,” Poles said. “No, we’re constructing a very good football team. Regardless of how you use whatever term that is, we just continue to add talent and young talent, older talent, whatever it takes to make the best team possible. You know, actually, late night with the wife we are watching TV get like the home network where you know, there’s some rooms that are good, you might have to redo some countertops over here, some fresh paint over there. Some rooms are good. You don’t need to touch them. So that’s kind of the thought process there. That’s not a rebuild either.”

The running back, quarterback, defensive end and inside linebacker rooms may be considered areas that just need small touch ups. But everything else is looking like a large project. 

Poles may not label what is going on with his team as a “rebuild,” but there will be plenty of additions made from the draft that will ultimately help the foundation of this new Bears team moving forward. 

2. More Mock Drafts

With just two days before the 2022 NFL Draft begins, it seems like everyone is posting their mock drafts online for all to see. Some have the Bears selecting players with just the six picks they originally have. Others incorporated trades to acquire more picks. 

(Make sure you go check out all the mock drafts from the CHGO staff: Mine, Adam Hoge’s and Will DeWitt’s.)

Well, just like many of you, Poles has also been running his own mock drafts with this staff.

“So what we’ve done the last few days is we ran simulations of the draft over and over and over and over again, to our picks,” Poles said. “We trade, we had guys fake call in fake trades just to test our communication, test our trade charts, test all of that to make sure that everything’s smooth on game day.”

Poles had his scouts at Halas Hall for 12 days just before Easter and the group participated in anonymous polls on their cell phones to determine how each individual felt about particular players.  

“And that information would come down to a database and we would display it on the screen,” Poles said. “So, we’d see how everyone had it ranked. Sometimes it was a runaway for the top guy. Sometimes there was a really tight race that just led to more conversation and for us to watch more tape. … And again, all of this was done so that we make good decisions, and we have our board set up the right way.’

3. Trading Back 

Poles knew what he was signing up for when he took over the Bears’ general manager. He inherited a team that had many holes and limited draft capital to address them. 

“But at the same time, I mean, that’s why I was hired,” Poles said. “That’s why our group is doing what we do is to take what we have and construct the best roster we can and have the best draft we can.”

In order to potentially achieve that goal, Poles mentioned that the Bears “will be in the business depending on where it is and what it looks like and moving back and trying to create more” draft capital. 

With only six picks, this seems like the logical approach for Poles and the Bears. Later on in the 20-minute press conference, Poles also brought up the idea of acquiring more picks. 

“Like I said, for draft picks, I would love to do more movement and get more picks, but it’s got to be in the right area,” he said.