Analyzing all of Ryan Poles' draft day trades for the Bears since 2022, which ones worked and which ones failed ahead of the 2025 Draft
With the 2025 NFL Draft fast approaching, the Chicago Bears are still in an interesting position with a lot of possibilities going into Ryan Poles' fourth draft.Heading into this draft, I've looked back at Poles' previous three draft classes to preview what to expect or see what changes need to be made in terms of […]
With the 2025 NFL Draft fast approaching, the Chicago Bears are still in an interesting position with a lot of possibilities going into Ryan Poles' fourth draft.
Heading into this draft, I've looked back at Poles' previous three draft classes to preview what to expect or see what changes need to be made in terms of the process for 2025. Yesterday, I broke down all of Poles' draft picks since 2022 round by round to see which picks were successful and which were not.
Today, I wanted to do a similar process but this time looking at all the draft day trades, which were deals made during the actual draft, not ahead of or after the draft.
The reason being is because the Bears are sitting in an interesting spot in the first-round with the 10th overall pick. Many speculated whether the Bears might move up for someone like Mason Graham or Ashton Jeanty. While Poles, himself, mentioned possibly moving back from 10 if the desired prospects are off the board.
So, let's look back at Poles draft day trade history a see what the tendencies are, which ended up being a longer list than you'd might expect.
2022 NFL Draft
Bears Received: 254th pick (S Elijah Hicks), 255th pick (P Trenton Gill)
Chargers Received: 2023 sixth-round (OT Scott Matlock)
This late-round trade moving a future sixth worked out really nice for the Bears. Chicago landed a key depth player in Elijah Hicks in the seventh who is still making an impact on the roster and a starting punter in Trenton Gill, who was eventually replaced by Tory Taylor in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Bears Received: 168th pick (LT Braxton Jones), 203rd pick (RB Trestan Ebner)
Bills Received: 148th pick (WR Khalil Shakir)
This one is a mix. Poles traded down 20 spots in the fifth-round to collect the Bills fifth and sixth-rounders. Landing a three-year starter at left tackle in Braxton Jones makes this a major success, even if Trestan Ebner never panned out and Khalil Shakir turned into a major offensive contributor for Buffalo.
Bears Received: 166th pick (later traded to CIN), 207th pick (OL Doug Kramer)
Texans Received: 150th pick (DT Thomas Booker)
For this one, the Bears again moved down in the fifth-round picking up a fifth and sixth-rounder from the Texans. The fifth was traded again (more below) but the sixth was used to draft Doug Kramer, who's played 18 games for Chicago. Meanwhile, the Texans moved up to get Thomas Booker, who played 10 games in Houston.
Bears Received: 174th pick (DE Dominique Robinson), 226th pick (OL Ja'Tyre Carter)
Bengals Received: 166th pick (S Tycen Anderson)
Another fifth-round trade down this time moving back eight spots while picking up a seventh in the process. The Bears landed Dominique Robinson (34 games played, 8 starts) and Ja'Tyre Carter (13 games played, 2 starts) with those picks. Tycen Anderson played 24 games for the Bengals.
2023 NFL Draft
Bears Received: 10th pick (RT Darnell Wright), 2024 fourth-rounder (P Tory Taylor)
Eagles Received: 9th pick (DT Jalen Carter)
Everyone likes giving Poles a lot of crap for this move on opening night, but I'm not one of those people. As good of a player Jalen Carter is, he had major character concerns coming into the draft and it's something Poles preferred not to deal with. Moving back one spot still gave the Bears a future right tackle in Darnell Wright and the Bears used the 2024 fourth-rounder to draft Tory Taylor at punter. This still worked out in the Eagles favor, unless Wright can make a Pro Bowl level jump in 2025.
Bears Received: 56th pick (CB Tyrique Stevenson)
Jaguars Received: 61st pick (TE Brenton Strange), 136th pick (OLB Yasir Abdullah)
This was the first trade up made by Poles during the draft, moving up five spots to draft Tyrique Stevenson while giving up their second and fifth-rounder. It's a solid deal for Chicago given Stevenson's contributions and it didn't cost the team much.
Bears Received: 115th pick (RB Roschon Johnson), 165th pick (CB Terell Smith)
Saints Received: 103rd pick (OL Nick Saldiveri)
Once again a Day 3 trade down, this time in the fourth-round moving back 12 spots while picking up a fifth-round pick. Poles used those selections to draft Roschon Johnson (29 games played) and Terell Smith (26 games played, 6 starts). Meanwhile, the Saints only got 15 games and 6 starts out of Nick Saldiveri so far.
2024 NFL Draft
Bears Received: 144th pick (DE Austin Booker)
Bills Received: 2025 fourth-round pick
This trade is still unresolved with the Bills set to use the pick gained from the Bears later this month in the 2025 draft. But, the Bears moved back into the fifth-round last year to select Austin Booker, a high-upside developmental pass rusher, who still managed to play all 17 games with 1.5 sacks as a rookie. Seems to be worth it so far.
Overall Takeaways
Moving up early in the draft from the 10th overall pick would certainly be unconventional for Poles to do later this month. However, moving back a few spots from 10th overall could be on the table depending on how the board falls and the willingness of another team to move up (if say Shedeur Sanders falls).
Overall, Poles has a tendency to move back on Day 3 and collect more picks with a decent track record of making those late-round picks count. I'm looking at the 148th pick in the 5th-round as a potential trade down opportunity again for the Bears.
As for Day 2, the Bears seem content sticking with 39, 41, and 72, which are all great picks to have in this class. I don't see Poles moving off any of those three selections.
Bears Draft History: Breaking down the success rate of Ryan Poles and his draft decisions through each round since 2022
He’s had some big swings and some bad misses.
