Bears' GM Ryan Poles has a blatant answer for why he chose Caleb Williams over Justin Fields
It's been 80 days since the Chicago Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers and 40 days since the Bears selected quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to replace him.Since then, both sides have started their next chapter without each other with Williams set to become […]
It's been 80 days since the Chicago Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers and 40 days since the Bears selected quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to replace him.
Since then, both sides have started their next chapter without each other with Williams set to become the next franchise quarterback in Chicago.
Leading up to the start of mandatory minicamp at Halas Hall, Bears' general manager Ryan Poles joined the Adam Schefter Podcast to discuss how this massive offseason has unfolded for the Bears and gave an honest answer as to why he decided to make a change at the most important position in football.
For starters, it wasn't an easy decision to make by any means. After the prior regime drafted Fields in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, it seemed like the Bears quarterback luck would turn the corner. Three years later, and three seasons of missing the playoffs, that wasn't going to be the case.
Heading into a pivotal offseason with a solid supporting cast on board, Poles had to make a massive decision when presented with the first overall pick for the second year in a row. The year before, Poles traded the top pick for a haul to the Carolina Panthers, a deal that helped make the entire roster turnaround possible.
"We knew that the work we had to do to get this roster to a place to win a lot of games, but we knew at that moment that we were increasing talent immediately, giving us the opportunity to draft, and opportunity for the future," Poles explained while reflecting on the trade. "It really came together in the best way possible. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about if that trade didn't happen, how would we have gotten this roster to be a winner?"
The trade with the Panthers gave Carolina quarterback Bryce Young in the 2023 NFL Draft but the Panthers struggled after sending wide receiver DJ Moore to the Bears and handed the next first overall pick right back to the Bears.
At this point, with the roster and coaching staff established, the Bears needed to find the missing piece to get the team over the hump, which led the front office to begin diving into the top quarterback in the 2024 class.
"There's two levels to it. One, it's talent. We all know it's a quarterback driven league and you need a guy that puts you in a position to win games. In scouting we talk about win because of and win with type quarterbacks. Those are the one's that you need to win championships," Poles explained. "When you put it all together with what he can do, you knew that we were going to be in a good position to get a quarterback that can really change the narrative around here."
Even still, it took a lot of time and intel before being all on board with making this decision official and the Bears had certain standards they wanted their next quarterback to meet before committing to him.
"It's about the person," Poles added. "We just had to take the time to dig into the person to see if he's the right fit for us. We have a high standard of coachability, grit, passion for the game, resilience, all of those things had to be checked off. As we did our homework… things came together."
The real selling point for the Bears to commit to Williams as the player and person they wanted to lead the organization came from listening to those closest to him.
"When you brought his name up to teammates and see their face light up, it wasn't even about the talent, it was about the man," Poles said. "When people light up and talk about someone as a person and as a leader, that holds a lot of weight. When we started hitting 10-15 different sources that were saying the same thing about him, that's the proof I needed to really get this to where it needed to go."
On March 16th, the Bears made their move sending Fields to his preferred destination in Pittsburgh and 40 days later drafted their guy with the top pick in the draft. Whatever happens next is anyone's guess, but those inside the building at Halas Hall already feel like, for once, they got it right.
