Ryan Poles enters his third season with the Bears in 2024 after being named the club's seventh general manager in franchise history on Jan. 25, 2022.
Poles, 38, recently completed his second season with the Bears where he and head coach Matt Eberflus were instrumental in restructuring the club's roster to not only make the team younger, but also set up to remain competitive for the coming years. The 2023 roster was comprised of new, young talent as the team has transformed from one of the oldest rosters in the NFL at the end of the 2021 season, to one of the youngest teams in the NFL. Holding the No. 1 pick entering the 2023 Draft, Poles struck a deal with the Carolina Panthers on March 15, which brought in wide receiver DJ Moore in addition to the 2023 No. 9 overall selection, the 2023 61st overall pick, a 2024 first-round selection and a 2025 second-round selection. The roster additions continued in free agency. On March 15-16, the Bears acquired several new faces: linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, defensive linemen DeMarcus Walker and Andrew Billings, offensive lineman Nate Davis, running backs D'Onta Foreman and Travis Homer and tight end Robert Tonyan. Poles' final splash in free agency came late in the offseason, signing both defensive lineman Yannick Ngakoue and tight end Marcedes Lewis to deals within a 24-hour period on August 4.
The Bears completed their most notable in-season move ahead of the trade deadline in Week 9 when they acquired defensive lineman Montez Sweat from the Washington Commanders via trade. In exchange, the Bears sent a second round pick back to Washington. Under Poles, the club has also extended the contracts of tight end Cole Kmet as well as Billings and Sweat. Chicago's 2023 opening day lineup featured 10 starters not on the 2022 roster (three offense; seven defense). The Bears opened the 2023 NFL season with 11 players that were on the active roster before Poles was hired as the club's GM.Entering the 2024 offseason, the club once again holds the No. 1 pick in this year's NFL Draft, thanks to the trade with Carolina for 2023's first round pick.
With one of the youngest on-field rosters in 2022, the Bears posted a league-high 6,721 snaps from first-year players. Offensively, the club finished the 2022 season with record-setting rushing performances from quarterback Justin Fields, while also setting a team rushing record with a league-best 3,019 rushing yards, the most ever by a Bears offense since the start of the 1920 NFL season. Defensively, with the youngest on-field defense in the NFL, the club finished the season ranked among the Top-10 in several categories: completions allowed (323, 6th), interception percentage (2.9%, 8th), interception yards (201, 9th) and fourth down conversions (six, 1st) to name a few.
Chicago opened the 2022 season with several new faces on the roster following a mix of trades, free agent signings and waiver claims. The Bears Week 1 roster featured 11 rookie debuts, the most by any team in the NFL this past season. The club's 2023 draft class also featured a large group with 10 total selections. The 2022-23 Bears draft classes were the first time since the start of the modern seven-round draft era that the Bears had consecutive classes with 10+ picks.
Prior to his arrival in Chicago, Poles spent 13 years within the Kansas City Chiefs front office. In his 13th and final season with the Chiefs in 2021, he was named the club's Executive Director of Player Personnel. Prior to the 2021 season, Poles served for three seasons as the club's Assistant Director of Player Personnel (2018-20), a season as the Director of College Scouting (2017), four seasons as the College Scouting Coordinator (2013-16) and three seasons as the College Scouting Administrator (2010-12). Poles originally joined the Chiefs in 2009 as the team's Player Personnel Assistant.
During his 13 years in Kansas City the Chiefs captured one Super Bowl title, two AFC championships and seven AFC West division championships. Poles oversaw all aspects of the college scouting across the country for the Chiefs while assisting with the pro personnel process and preparing for free agency. He also assisted General Manager Brett Veach with the coordination of the NFL Draft and overseeing the team's out-of-town area scouts. Poles was instrumental in helping the Chiefs land top draft prospects such as All-Pros Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. In 2021, the Chiefs tied for second in the NFL with six Pro Bowl selections in Mahomes, Kelce, Tyreek
Hill, Orlando Brown, Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu and tied for first in the NFL with seven selections in 2020. In total, from 2009-21, the Chiefs had 69 Pro Bowl selections with 28 different players.
Prior to joining the Chiefs, Poles served as a Recruiting Assistant for his alma mater, Boston College (2008-09), after signing with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2008.
The Canandaigua, N.Y., native played offensive tackle for five seasons for Boston College (2003-07), protecting former NFL QB Matt Ryan and playing alongside Bears Co-Director of Player Personnel, Trey Koziol. Poles was honored with the Paul Cavanaugh Award in 2007 as the student-athlete with total commitment to football both on and off the field and for his dedication to volunteerism, ethics and community. He played his prep football at Canandaigua Academy in Canandaigua, N.Y.
Poles also was named to two "40 Under 40" lists in the past five years: Ingram's Magazine in 2019 and by The Athletic in 2021. He graduated from Boston College in 2007 with a degree in communications. He and his wife, Katie, have two children: Mason and Jordyn.
