Anonymous NFL executives continue praising Ryan Poles as the Bears’ top free-agent signing earns more external respect
Opposing teams in the NFL were very high on former Seattle Seahawks safety Coby Bryant and the Chicago Bears moved quick to lure him in during the early days of free agency.
The Chicago Bears made it clear in the early days of free agency that they were going to overhaul the safety position and identified former Seattle Seahawks safety Coby Bryant as the top player to lead the position.
“My little exposure with him when he came in was, ‘Holy cow, this guy has got the ‘it’ factor to him,’” Bears head coach Ben Johnson said of Bryant. “He’s got some dynamic traits in terms of his personality that I think are going to rub off on our guys—and not to mention the way he plays the game is what we want our defense to look like as well.”
For Bryant, the selling point was how quick of a push the Bears actually made in free agency. That alone showed how much the team actually wanted him compared to other teams looking his way on the open market. The three-year, $40 million contract Chicago handed to the 27-year-old only reinforced that belief.
Comments from NFL execs show the Bears made the correct call bringing in Coby Bryant
While speaking with anonymous NFL execs, Mike Sando of The Athletic revealed how other teams, including the Seahawks, weren’t happy with the Bears landing Bryant.
“Good player — wish we could have gotten him,” an exec said of Bryant.
“Seattle wanted to keep him,” another exec said.
Those comments back up what Bears general manager Ryan Poles had to say about the signing and how he immediately knew the organization made the right choice.
“Anytime you bring a player in and your phones go off from coaches, front office, on how pissed off Seattle was not having him back, but also how fortunate we are to have a guy like this in our building, that’s what you want to hear,” Poles explained. “That’s exactly what happened. We’re fired up.”
The Bears needed a player like Coby Bryant on defense
The Bears feel like Bryant can do a little bit of everything in defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s system and brings a new edge to the building that the unit was previously missing.
“It’s something that ‘DA’ brought up as we’re going over self-scout over the last month and a half was the best defenses usually have two or three trained killers,” Johnson said. “You usually don’t have 11 of them, OK, but you’ve got two or three that are tone-setters that can really elevate the play of everyone around him. When we watched the tape, we felt like that jumped off when Coby was on the field. He’s a guy that comes out, whether he’s playing quarters, playing the post, playing down in the box, he’s coming down, and if he sees somebody, he’s looking to light them up.”
The Bears are still making a bold move by moving on from All-Pro safety and two-time team captain Kevin Byard, but it’s clear they believe the best football is ahead for Bryant and he has the ability to reach that kind of level as well.
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