GM Ryan Poles often receives extensive criticism for his inability to focus properly on Chicago Bears pass rush issues.
Poles also gets his share of criticism for a run defense among the league's worst over the past two years after they had been best in the NFL in 2023. His successes frequently get ignored. No one was jumping up to pat him on the back when Caleb Williams morphed into the "Iceman." Instead, it was the result of Ben Johnson's influence, even though the Bears had an entirely different coach when Poles first engineered the trade to get into position for Williams, and then took him.
Now, Poles looks like a winner again but this time it's not necessarily through his own efforts. Everyone deserves to catch a break now and then, and the Bears look like they have when the offseason grades they've been given by media is taken into account. It's not so much how well the Bears GM did in addressing needs, but actually how the NFC North opposition looks like they put a division title defense on a platter and sent it to Halas Hall first class.
I'm conflicted. There's problem areas on the roster that limit their potential ceiling, but when I look at this Bears offense and staff — that's a top 5 unit in football that can hide the roster defencies https://t.co/M4VRn0hCWX— Blake (@SoldierFieldBlg) July 6, 2026The latest example is NFL.com's offseason grades by Matt Okada. The Bears did not come away with spectacular marks, receiving a B-. However, they came in with the best grade of any NFC North team. Only the Vikings came close to them with a C+. As Okada points out, it's tough to get good marks for improving when you've spent the least amount of money in free agency like Minnesota. This comes after a drop of five wins from the previous year for the Vikings. Detroit's offseason has been one setback after another.PFSN ranked the Bears’ offense No. 3 in the NFL entering 2026: pic.twitter.com/mc4wRzHbTm— BearsTalk (@TheBearsTalk) July 6, 2026Packers' atrocious offseasonMore fun than all of this for the Bears is what Okada said about Green Bay as he gave the Packers a D-minus.
