Analysis: Team president Kevin Warren views Bears general manager Ryan Poles able to communicate, organize, and make the right decisions, only fueling extension discussion.
No one is announcing a contract extension yet for Bears GM Ryan Poles but seeing anything other than this at some point in the near future seems incredibly unlikely after all the momentum building behind him.
Bears president Kevin Warren added to that momentum with positive comments about Poles at the owners meetings and seeing anything less than this for the Bears GM after he just completed a free agency period with trades viewed positively throughout the NFL seems very unlikely.
Warren praised Poles’ progress through his communication with the coaching staff and with ownership/management.
“Everything that we had hoped that we would have from a working relationship, we’ve seen it,” Warren said.
Poles’ ability to work within the organization goes behind just with Johnson, but that’s a part badly needed after the Matt Eberflus fiasco.
“I can’t opine on what it was before I got there because I wasn’t there but I know how we even have our salary cap meetings a couple times a month to bring the finance and accounting department with the football operations, so it was clear,” Warren told reporters. “I think that’s one of the reasons why coach and Ryan and the staff were able to do so well, so quickly, is they were organized. We didn’t have to go back and say ‘OK, what’s the budget, how much we were due?’ we were planning very similar to the way Ryan led the coaching search.
“I mean that’s the good thing about it. When you have time, you communicate with each other, you respect each other, you can plan, you can do some great things together.”
The praise just came rolling off Warren’s tongue for Poles and his ability to work within the organization.
“Ryan is incredibly, incredibly bright,” Poles said. “He’s curious, he’s hard-working. And he has a support system around him. And so what I just try to do is to make sure I’m there. We talk every day but I’m there as a resource. I challenge the thought process just to make sure that it’s been pressure-tested. But I’m there not in a judgmental manner but in a very positive manner for both coach and Ryan.
“I just feel that we’re in a really good direction. This is going to be a really good year and to have it be in the 40th anniversary of the 85 bears is special.”
It might take a series of draft disasters this year to change something like the movement Poles has made toward a new contract.
The deal he has expires after the 2026 season, according to the Tribune’s Brad Biggs. It means he’d be in line for an extension after this year, if not before then, but anyone who’s able to take the comments of Warren and spin them in some other way or even into a neutral tone is probably carrying around a grudge or simply not dealing with reality.