How Bears general manager Ryan Poles succeeded in his free agency plan despite not being as aggressive as fans hoped Chicago would be
The Chicago Bears made strategic signings in free agency with short-term and long-term plans in mind.
The Chicago Bears were knocking on the door of a Super Bowl berth in 2025 after an 11-5 regular season continued into the playoffs until it ultimately fell short in overtime of the NFC’s Divisional Round. In the second season with quarterback Caleb Williams and the first season under head coach Ben Johnson, the Bears proved they are legit contenders.
After that kind of season and the success the team had, many on the outside believed the win-now mode was open and expected some aggressive actions this offseason.
Instead, the Bears took a calculated approach to free agency, making strategic signings to retool the roster without blowing the budget or throwing away the team’s future.
“We want to sustain success,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles told the media on Thursday. “We’ve talked about that a lot. In order to do that, we had to be very calculated with the moves that we make. So, when we were looking through different situations, we took that into account and we felt like sticking with our plan going into free agency.”
Speed was the name of the game for the Bears in free agency
While the Bears had a plan in place, temptation did creep in. To address the elephant in the room, Poles confirmed the Bears looked into acquiring Las Vegas Raiders star pass rusher Maxx Crosby and insinuated that kind of move didn’t fit with the team’s places for their resources.
Instead, the Bears used the available cap space to bring in eight outside additions while re-signing seven of their own. When it came to what kind of players the Bears wanted to acquire, speed was the name of the game based on last year’s results.
“We wanted to get faster and more explosive,” Poles explained. “I think we did that, I know we did that. We want guys that are passionate about football, that play our style, and our brand of football. I know we did that. Especially the leadership, to continue to enhance our roster so we can continue to push forward and be a championship caliber team. I know we got better through this phase.”
All of the main additions made in free agency on the defensive side of the ball embody speed between safety Coby Bryant, linebacker Devin Bush and defensive lineman Neville Gallimore.
“It’s something I noticed, we all noticed — especially in the postseason and really down the last part of the fall — in order to the style that we need to play, we need to be able to close on the football a lot faster than what we have been doing,” Poles said. “That was an emphasis going into it. Watching these guy’s tape, we answered that.”
Bryant is a physical enforcer who’s just scratching the surface of what he can do at the safety position coming off a Super Bowl win. Bush has tremendous closing speed both in coverage and attacking downhill after being a former high draft pick. Gallimore adds more explosiveness to the middle of the front and the speed needed to collapse the pocket in a hurry.
Even with the addition of wide receiver Kalif Raymond, the Bears added a electric return man on special teams that has history working with Johnson and wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El.
The Bears believe they came out of the last three days as a better overall team from these new additions. The results will speak for itself, but it’s clear Chicago had the right intentions in mind for how to attack this period of the offseason.
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