(5) Two position groups that exceeded Poles’ expectations in training camp were the receivers and linebackers.<\/p>\n
Poles singled out receivers Olamide Zaccheaus, a veteran who excelled in his first camp with the Bears, rookie second-round pick Luther Burden III and undrafted rookie Jahdae Walker, who impressed all summer.<\/p>\n
“Just the way Zaccheaus has played, he’s been outstanding,” Poles said. “Luther has taken huge steps, like he’s just starting. When I think of Jahdae, when I think of Theo [Benedet], where they are today, I mean the discussion was developmental and then they kind of put themselves a little bit ahead of that curve.”<\/p>\n
It was difficult for Poles to waive receiver Tyler Scott, a 2023 fourth-round pick, but said “we have to stay true to competition and true to talent, not where guys were drafted. I’m proud of that. I’m proud of our group and with the development of [Walker], he earned it.”<\/p>\n
At linebacker, Poles lauded 2023 fifth-round selection Noah Sewell and rookie fourth-round choice Ruben Hyppolite II.<\/p>\n
“Noah Sewell has made huge strides to come in and compete for that starting SAM position,” Poles said. “He got himself in shape, got right. [He had a] choppy start to his career, which shows you, like some of these guys, it’s going to take a few years. The NFL, it’s no joke and you’ve got to get yourself right to compete.<\/p>\n
“Hyppolite’s been flying around and has pressed to be one of the top guys in that room too. So that’s another [position group] that was ahead of whatever I thought it was going to be.”<\/p>\n
(6) D’Andre Swift was the only running back on the 53-man roster healthy enough to practice Tuesday, but Poles is confident that Roschon Johnson and Kyle Monangai will return from their injuries sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
“I feel good about their timelines,” Poles said. “Kyle’s coming along. Over the next few days, you’ll probably see the practice field look a little different. I’ve got a lot of faith those guys will be ready to go [for the season opener]. If they’re not, we’ll still look out and see if there’s guys that can help us. With Ben’s creativity, who knows who will be lined up back there.”<\/p>\n
(7) Rookie cornerback Zah Frazier, a fifth-round pick from Texas-San Antonio, was placed on the non-football list and will miss the entire season.<\/p>\n
Frazier sat out all of training camp due to a personal issue.<\/p>\n
“As we dug into it, tried to help him out, it revealed itself as something that happened before he got here,” Poles said. “So credit to our staff finding the root cause of what he was going through.<\/p>\n
“He’ll be down for the year, but he’ll spend the time going to meetings, in the weight room, and with the medical staff to prepare for next season to get ready to play. So, kind of a bummer on the front end, but I think because of everyone’s hard work and care here, we got him on the right path.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(5) Two position groups that exceeded Poles’ expectations in training camp were the receivers and linebackers. Poles singled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,443,692,391,2493,7,6,1034],"class_list":{"0":"post-320151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-centerpiece","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-ryan-poles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115097563691426513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320151","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=320151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}