Ryan Poles Just Made His Stance On Jonathan Taylor Rumors Clear

Ryan Poles is a former offensive lineman. When he took over the Chicago Bears as GM, he wanted to build a team that fit the image of this city. That meant producing a tough, physical roster on both offense and defense. Nothing exemplifies offensive physicality better than running the football. So one would expect Poles to have a strong opinion on the state of the running back market. Everybody knows the story by now. Star players like Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs have gone without contract extensions. Jonathan Taylor is mired in a dispute with the Indianapolis Colts and has requested a trade.

Poles appeared on The Rich Eisen Show this week. The host asked him point blank about the slate of the running back market. Unsurprisingly, the GM was direct in his response. He explained that every team has a set amount of money to spend because of the salary cap. They must hand out pieces of the pie carefully. As quarterback and defensive line markets explode, they’ve been taking money away from the running backs. Combine that with the far easier ability to replace productive players on the cheap via mid-to-late-round draft picks, and none of this is surprising.

This is why the speculation that Chicago is a great landing spot for Taylor was doomed from the start.

Ryan Poles has seen this philosophy work for years.

When he was with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019, when they won the Super Bowl, the hero of the game was Damien Williams, a former undrafted free agent who’d signed with them after a forgettable stint in Miami. He rushed for over 100 yards and scored twice. Three years later, it was 7th round pick Isiah Pacheco doing the same thing in their second championship victory. Meanwhile, the Bears have also watched this approach produce positive results. Jordan Howard was a 5th round pick in 2016. He set the Bears rookie record for rushing yards that year and then carried them to the playoffs in 2018.

Khalil Herbert, a 6th round pick, has averaged five yards per carry across two seasons, with 731 yards last year on only 129 carries. The Bears also added veteran D’Onta Foreman, fresh off a 900-yard season in 2022, for only $2 million. They’ve produced quality running games for years without the presence of a high draft pick or a big contract player. Ryan Poles sympathizes with players at the position, but he’s correct. The nature of the market has made this the way it is. Unless the NFL somehow changes that, their hopes for fairer treatment won’t amount to much.