Bears GM Ryan Poles throws shade at predecessor Ryan Pace

When the Chicago Bears traded the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft to the Carolina Panthers, Ryan Poles was thinking about more than just the 2023 season.

The first-year general manager recently admitted to SI.com’s Albert Breer that the first-round pick in 2024 and the second-round pick in 2025 that Chicago acquired in the trade package from Carolina was a penance, of sorts, to replenish the draft capital depleted by his predecessor, Ryan Pace.

“After doing the research with my analytics group, I really wanted it to be a situation where this helps us now, but also helps us down the road,” Poles said. “Obviously, adding uptick in 2023 was critical, but I also want premium picks, or what could be premium picks in ’24 and ’25, just to continue to add draft capital down the road. That was important, again, just to continue to make up for some of the trades that the organization did before, to try to find a quarterback and continue to add good players in this draft.”

The previous deals Poles is referring to happened four years apart. Pace traded Chicago’s first-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2017 plus a third-round pick in 2018 to the San Francisco 49ers to move up one spot and draft quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

The other move came in 2021 when pace sent Chicago’s first- and fifth-round picks plus its 2022 first- and fourth-round picks to jump from 20th to 11th overall to take Justin Fields.

The Bears, who added second- and fourth-round picks this year from the Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn trades, respectively, have four picks in the top 64 of the 2023 draft plus three picks in the top 64 of the 2024 and 2025 drafts.