ryan poles

Chicago Bears Hiring Ryan Poles as Next GM: Reports

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The Bears have reportedly found the new leader of their front office. On Tuesday Adam Schefter reported that George McCaskey and his search committee hired Ryan Poles.

To NBC Sports Chicago's knowledge, Poles kicked off the second round of interviews for the team’s general manager vacancy. The Bears and Poles hit it off so well that each party reportedly decided to move forward together after meeting in person on Tuesday. For the Bears that  would include cancelling reported second-round interviews with Monti Ossenfort, Eliot Wolf, and possibly Morocco Brown as well, as all three were other reported finalists for the job. For Poles, that meant pulling his name from the Vikings wishlist, since he interviewed for their GM job too.

Before taking the job at Halas Hall, the 36-year-old Poles had spent the last 13 years working in the Chiefs organization, most recently as their executive director of player personnel. Poles comes from a scouting background with an emphasis on the college game, and joined Kansas City’s front office as a scouting assistant in 2009. He was the team’s director of college scouting from May 2016 - June 2018, so he was leading the Chief’s college scouting efforts when the team traded up to draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017.

Poles played college ball, too. He was an offensive tackle for the Boston College Eagles from 2004-2007, so he protected the likes of Quinton Porter, Chris Crane and future NFL star Matt Ryan.

Now it’s time for the Bears to turn their full attention to the head coaching search. Poles will certainly have some names in mind for candidates he’ll want to interview. We’ll see if those names line up with the list of candidates the Bears have already interviewed, or if the team will widen its net even more now. They’ve already spoken to at least 10 candidates, with the team expected to interview Dennis Allen on Tuesday. So far, the reported finalists are Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and former Colts and Lions head coach Jim Caldwell.

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