{"id":214024,"date":"2025-07-17T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/214024\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:04:10","slug":"bears-gm-ryan-poles-faces-a-critical-season-can-he-turn-talk-into-tangible-results-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/214024\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears GM Ryan Poles faces a critical season. Can he turn talk into tangible results? \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

How much pressure is on Ryan Poles<\/a> this season? It depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n

The Bears\u2019 general manager was given a three-year contract extension<\/a>, providing him with stability with the team for the next five years, aligning him with new head coach Ben Johnson on the same timeline.<\/p>\n

He was reportedly under contract for two more years to begin with. The Bears naively think they\u2019re hiding national secrets with Poles\u2019 contract length, ironic when they publicize the length of every player\u2019s deal. <\/p>\n

With that, a portion of the Bears\u2019 fan base thinks there\u2019s very little pressure on Poles, as ownership has given him new money and more patience. <\/p>\n

We should all have bosses who believe in us the way George McCaskey and Kevin Warren believe in Poles. <\/p>\n

What has Poles done to earn an extension well before his current deal was set to expire? He has yet to draft a Pro Bowler and has one of the worst three-year runs in Bears franchise history. The Bears are 15-36 with two historic double-digit losing streaks under Poles.<\/p>\n

Yet, this is the same organization that not only let go of Jerry Vanisi in 1987 after compiling a 47-17 record, but also eliminated the GM role entirely. <\/p>\n

After the 2011 season, the Bears fired Jerry Angelo, who had a 95-81 record, a Super Bowl appearance and four trips to the playoffs. The Bears have been to the playoffs only twice since. <\/p>\n

Many consider Phil Emery to be the worst Bears GM of the modern era, but even he had a record of 23-25 in three seasons. <\/p>\n

I understand the Bears can\u2019t keep making drastic changes year after year and expect to win. Under Poles, the Bears replaced their offensive and defensive coordinators, their QB and now their head coach. <\/p>\n

Stability is much needed inside Halas Hall. By all accounts, Poles did a fantastic job landing Johnson<\/a>, but why would that warrant a contract extension? There\u2019s still much that needs to be proved to EARN an extension. <\/p>\n

The Cubs allowed their president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, who has been with the team for almost 15 years and has won a World Series, to enter the last year of his contract. It was a prove-it year for a guy who has shown much more than Poles, and so far, Hoyer has delivered a first-place team. <\/p>\n

Ryan Pace had a similar 14-34 record after three seasons as Bears GM, and like Poles, got a contract extension after he fired John Fox and hired Matt Nagy. It wasn\u2019t a popular decision at the time, either. The Bears went out the next year and won the division with a 12-4 record. And that\u2019s what Poles needs to happen to quiet the critics: win.<\/p>\n

Poles has coined so many mantras for the Bears over the past three seasons: <\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWe\u2019re going to take the North and never give it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cOur culture is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWe\u2019re going to break the cycle\u201d (of not having a great quarterback).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cIt\u2019s time to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

They all look great on Instagram slides to hype the fanbase, but the hope was always hollow. The Bears have \u201ctaken\u201d last place in the North every season, had a dysfunctional locker room, and the \u201ccircle of suck\u201d continued this past year rather than breaking a cycle. <\/p>\n

If the Bears don\u2019t win big in the next couple of years, I don\u2019t want to hear that they\u2019re forced to keep a GM who has a few years left on his deal. The Bears didn\u2019t have to do this; they had plenty of time. <\/p>\n

New contract or not, it\u2019s time for Poles to produce results immediately. Enough with winning the offseason, it\u2019s time to win games. Success will create true stability, not a new contract that hasn\u2019t been earned. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the \u201cWaddle & Silvy\u201d show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How much pressure is on Ryan Poles this season? It depends on who you ask. The Bears\u2019 general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,44800,2493,6152,7,6,320,1034,30061],"class_list":{"0":"post-214024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicago-bears-front-headlines","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-column","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-opinion","17":"tag-ryan-poles","18":"tag-shaw-local-front-headlines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114868248203882384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}