Is Poles a genius GM, or just lucky as hell?

[Bear-Hawk]

I keep wondering where the Bears would be today if Bears had not landed the #1 pick two years in a row. People on Bears forum tell me Poles is a genius GM. I am very happy to have DJ Moore, Wright, Odunze, and Williams, but think it’s more due to Poles luck than skill. So far, they haven’t run me out of town for my opinion.

 

[Ruminator]

Probably a little bit of both, except "genius" is serious overkill. Shrewd or astute, maybe.

 

[12AngryHawks]

Slow down there. I think you might be suffering from PTSF (Pace Traumatic Stress Fandom)

Too early to tell if Poles is a genius, maybe compared to Pace. But he's in the same boat as Adam Peters in Washington, both are in the beginning stages of steering their teams in the right direction. They were placed in the unenviable position of trying to turn around teams that have suffered for many years. So, if they are the ones that can finally turn around the fortunes of their teams, and build them into perennial playoff contenders, then yes, you could label them geniuses at that point.

 

[Hawkinaz]

I am in the 50/50 camp he made a good decision to tear it down to the studs, the trade with Carolina and what happened afterwards was luck you traded back with the right team and that was followed with the team finishing last. The last 2 drafts had the most QB talent overall of past drafts making it attractive for teams to want to trade up. It was a perfect storm of making right moves, circumstance and luck


You can look at some past NBA trades that resulting to elite player as draft picks. Kobe Bryant comes to mind

 

[EverydayImRusselin]

Let's hold that applause

https://x.com/NFCNorthNewss/status/1794049574199288033

 

[CPHawk]

If JS had passed on drafting CJ Stroud, I’m not sure I’d be labeling him a genius

 

[Scout]

I keep wondering where the Bears would be today if Bears had not landed the #1 pick two years in a row. People on Bears forum tell me Poles is a genius GM. I am very happy to have DJ Moore, Wright, Odunze, and Williams, but think it’s more due to Poles luck than skill. So far, they haven’t run me out of town for my opinion.

I think that Poles took a gamble with how to construct the roster and it has paid off so far. Keep in mind that Pace took some gambles too and it worked against him.

Poles better hope the offense can really take it to the next level because I am not sure the defense is going to be able to do more heavy lifting over the long haul.

Waldron has more than enough to run his offensive system but it requires a QB reading the mike and safety pre snap for this style of offense to take off.

 

[Hawkinaz]

If JS had passed on drafting CJ Stroud, I’m not sure I’d be labeling him a genius

I ever understood Bryce Young as an NFL prospect Stroud looked the part Young was good as a college QB not as a pro

last year the Bears were not totally sold on Justin Fields not being the QBOTF so not in the market at that time

Playing devils advocate if the Bears had kept the pick and selected Stroud how much different would the Bears look? And will Stroud and Caleb Williams be compared to each other?

 

[CPHawk]

I ever understood Bryce Young as an NFL prospect Stroud looked the part Young was good as a college QB not as a pro

last year the Bears were not totally sold on Justin Fields not being the QBOTF so not in the market at that time

Playing devils advocate if the Bears had kept the pick and selected Stroud how much different would the Bears look? And will Stroud and Caleb Williams be compared to each other?

Fairly or unfairly, the GM will be judged forever on who turns out to be the better QB. If Stroud continues on his trajectory, and becomes the next Mahomes, that’s going to be tough to Caleb to beat.

 

[NoGain]

Obviously a bunch of luck involved. But you have to make the moves for luck to happen.

The Bears look good. The NFC North is, to me, the most interesting division in the NFC now. Just about anything could happen. Wait and watch...

 

[chris98251]

Doesn't matter how good a QB could be, the system and talent around them have to measure up also, how many guys get drafted and put into a system that doesn't play them to their strengths or puts hand cuffs on them to not play loose, or they have a shit line and lose confidence and get happy feet, it can on and on. WR's that body catch and drop a lot a passes trying to catch with their hands is another aspect.

 

[hgwellz12]

Let's hold that applause

https://x.com/NFCNorthNewss/status/1794049574199288033

Damn. Shoutsout @SoulfishHawk

 

[Bear-Hawk]

I am in the 50/50 camp he made a good decision to tear it down to the studs, the trade with Carolina and what happened afterwards was luck you traded back with the right team and that was followed with the team finishing last. The last 2 drafts had the most QB talent overall of past drafts making it attractive for teams to want to trade up. It was a perfect storm of making right moves, circumstance and luck


You can look at some past NBA trades that resulting to elite player as draft picks. Kobe Bryant comes to mind

I say it doesn’t take a genius GM to trade away your Pro Bowl players (Mack and Smith) for two second round draft picks (Stevenson and Dexter). Now I will wait to see whether those guys become Pro Bowlers before I declare Poles a genius. And with the exception of Edwards, he hasn’t gotten much in free agency out of the $100 million cap space he gained by trashing the roster. Drafting Wright instead of Jalen Carter or JSN in 2023 was a blunder IMO.

I tell the Bears forum guys that I’ll jump on their Poles bandwagon when he wins the North and has a Super Bowl ready team.

 

[fenderbender123]

The few Bears fans I've talked to around here say that they like the personnel decisions, but that the offensive coaching is going to waste a lot of it.

 

[Lagartixa]

BREAKING: #Bears QB Caleb Williams has been benched during Chicago’s OTA’s after throwing 7 consecutive interceptions.

Rookie Caleb Williams has had a rough start at OTA’s after throwing multiple interceptions and not competing a SINGLE pass in 7v7 drills.

[That's part of what's in the tweet linked above by @EverydayImRusselin]
https://x.com/NFCNorthNewss/status/1794049574199288033

Maybe Williams just didn't know what 7v7 means

 

[Hawkinaz]

I say it doesn’t take a genius GM to trade away your Pro Bowl players (Mack and Smith) for two second round draft picks (Stevenson and Dexter). Now I will wait to see whether those guys become Pro Bowlers before I declare Poles a genius. And with the exception of Edwards, he hasn’t gotten much in free agency out of the $100 million cap space he gained by trashing the roster. Drafting Wright instead of Jalen Carter or JSN in 2023 was a blunder IMO.

I tell the Bears forum guys that I’ll jump on their Poles bandwagon when he wins the North and has a Super Bowl ready team.

Passing on Jalen Carter was the correct move the Eagles are the team where he would have the most success and so far hasn’t been he would have been a disaster on the Bears the jury is still out on JSN

i do think luck has a lot to do with any successful GM. The only real bad move I think he has made was the Claypool trade other than that Poles has been solid. The trade for Montez Sweat was big

Bears could have drafted Byron Murphy for the 3 Tech Eberflus is desperate for

 

[Bear-Hawk]

Passing on Jalen Carter was the correct move the Eagles are the team where he would have the most success and so far hasn’t been he would have been a disaster on the Bears the jury is still out on JSN

i do think luck has a lot to do with any successful GM. The only real bad move I think he has made was the Claypool trade other than that Poles has been solid. The trade for Montez Sweat was big

Bears could have drafted Byron Murphy for the 3 Tech Eberflus is desperate for

I think Jalen Carter will be Warren Sapp 2.0 and so drafting Wright over him will look even worse in coming years. If we had taken JSN in 2023, we could have taken Murphy in 2024 instead of Odunze. That would have been better. The Seahawks picked up the players Poles passed over.

 

[Bear-Hawk]

[That's part of what's in the tweet linked above by @EverydayImRusselin]
https://x.com/NFCNorthNewss/status/1794049574199288033

Maybe Williams just didn't know what 7v7 means

This is no big deal. We all expected the Bears defense to be ahead of the offense at this early point. It takes time to put it all together on the new offense with rookie QB.

 

[Maulbert]

Exactly what have his teams done on the field to be labeled 'genius'?

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

To be a real draft genius, you've got to consistently find guys in the rounds you're not supposed to be finding guys in.