Bears general manager Ryan Poles knows how to separate business from his personal feelings. But that didn’t make trading receiver DJ Moore easy.
Poles had insisted Moore be included in what could end up being the signature trade of the GM’s career: a deal with the Panthers that yielded, eventually, quarterback Caleb Williams. Moore and Poles were close during their three years together with the Bears, the last of which was magical.
When the Bears decided to trade Moore in March to save salary cap space, Poles’ own son was furious at him — until Moore sent him a video message telling him to go easy on his dad. Poles reminded himself that his obligation was to do what was best for the team.
“I think that takes a little weight off your shoulders,” he said. “Because you did it for the right reason.”
It won’t be the last difficult decision Poles has to make. That’s the hope, at least.
Entering his fifth season, Poles is planning ahead in case he has to face a challenge a Bears GM hasn’t had to deal with in years: how to keep ascending, and increasingly expensive, players. That includes, if he makes the leap the Bears hope, Williams, who is eligible for a contract extension the minute this season ends.
Receiver Rome Odunze will be eligible for one then, too. Colston Loveland is two full seasons away, but the Bears think he can be one of the best tight ends in the sport. They’d have to pay him accordingly, the way they did with Darnell Wright earlier this month. They made the former first-round pick the highest-paid right tackle ever.
Finding a way to keep all of them would be a champagne problem, Poles told the Sun-Times while sitting at a round table in his office last week.
“I’ll take these problems any day,” he said. “I’ll take them over trading back from [draft pick] No. 1, for sure.”
Over his shoulder in the distance stood a replica of the Bears’ Super Bowl trophy — and next to it a plastic figurine of a shirtless Ben Johnson that makes Poles smile.
Looming over all of it, of course, is Williams. His success this year would set the Bears on course for years. The alternative — that Williams joins the list of Bears quarterbacks that have fallen short — would be crushing to the Bears’ infrastructure. The Bears need to find out which direction he’s headed this year.
League rules dictate that the Bears can start to negotiate a contract extension with Williams at the end of this season. His four-year rookie deal ends after 2027, though a fifth-year team option would keep him with the Bears through at least 2028. Most elite quarterbacks get an extension done before their fourth season.
Poles and Johnson believe he’s headed in the right direction, but both want to see him improve before the team commits to him as their quarterback for at least the next half-decade. The Bears want his accuracy to improve and for his heroics to not just be limited to the final two minutes of each game.
The clues they’ve seen are encouraging. Production, though, will be paramount.
“You can see Caleb’s desire to get better,” Poles said. “That’s been very high. He’s doubled down on his commitment to the game.”
Poles traded Moore to clean up their salary cap space not only for 2026, but in the three years afterward. Moore signed a four-year, $110 million extension two years ago — but it kicks in this year. What the Bears saved by trading him can be used to pay at least part of the next big Bears extension.
Future salaries were part of what kept Poles from going on a high-priced shopping spree this offseason. He was tempted to ride the momentum of the Bears’ first playoff win in 15 years, but reminded himself he wanted to contend for more than just a season or two.
“When you get into player acquisition phases, whether it’s free agency or the draft, we’re all like kids in a candy store,” he said. “But we surround ourselves with structure. …
“We want to do some unique things here and have success for a long time. That absolutely has to be a part of the process.”
Moore was the best player a contending Bears team has traded away since the start of the Phil Emery era. If the Bears keep growing, he won’t be the last.
Poles knows the biases that can come with evaluating his own players. But he figures he knows them better than anyone else, too. Poles has studied what the Patriots — and even last year’s champion, the Seahawks — did with their salary structures. He lived it in Kansas City as a member of the Chiefs front office when they gave Patrick Mahomes a 10-year, $450 million extension — and had to find a way to afford it.
The Bears hope to have anything close to resembling those problems one day. Poles, at least, is preparing a plan for them.
“It does get harder,” he said.
