Defensive Tackle or Edge: Which Does Ryan Poles Prefer?

Bears GM Ryan Poles addressed the draft Tuesday and among his few revelations were which position he prefers on defense.

Assistant GM Ian Cunningham (left) and GM Ryan Poles address the media at Halas Hall about the draft. / Photo: Chicago Bears Video

The Bears are not about to give away any draft day secret.

However, when he spoke with media Tuesday after the Brian Piccolo Award presentation GM Ryan Poles made it clear what they would want if a choice in the draft came down to  either an edge rusher or an equally graded interior defensive lineman. This could be the case at No. 9 in Round 1 or even later in Rounds 3 (75) and 4 (122).

"Yeah, we've talked about inside and outside," Poles said during the press conference with assistant Ian Cunningham participating. "Both are multipliers.

"Generally speaking, I would say the inside guy has the shortest path to the quarterback, so therefore like, if you have, we both have lived with, really good elite players that are inside and it changes everything and it opens up a lot for other teams as well. Yeah, having that interior rush is probably a preference when you have an outside guy. It makes it really difficult to scheme up.

The draft followers immediately will start thinking defensive tackle Byron Murphy II from Texas over one of the edge rushers, should the Bears have all of them graded similarly. Alabama's Dallas Turner, Florida State's Jared Verse and UCLA's Laiatu Latu are the  highest-rated players in most analysts' draft ratings among edges.

Initially, many analysts had Illinois defensive tackle Jer'Zhan "Johnny" Newton graded higher than Murphy but he was unable to participate in predraft workouts because of foot surgery he underwent after the season. It's possible he would be rated higher now, as he was able to hold a personal workout for personnel people last week.

The Bears are not entering the draft thinking it must be a particular player, and Poles won't even reveal he's taking QB Caleb Williams No. 1, although he made it obvious with his comments and earlier actions that this is the case.

"So unfortunately it's one of those things I think everyone's got to tune in on Thursday to watch and figure out, but I feel really good about our process and where we are and where we're headed," Poles said of Williams. "So we know what we're going to do but everyone is going to have to wait until Thursday to go there."

The needs at positions like edge rusher, defensive tackle or wide receiver could be met at any time.

"The nice thing is from the work that we've done I feel pretty good about just being flexible," Poles said.

Poles did say they'll have a preset line set to how far back they could trade in Round 1 should they decide to take that route.

"As the draft unfolds, there's going to be some indicators that start to educate us on how we need to move to acquire the top talents in this draft.

Either, way, Poles said he feels no pressure to trade back for more picks even though they have just four mainly because the roster looks much better than a few years ago.

"Things shift and change as you go along," Poles said. "It's gonna be hard to make this team now. It's gonna be really hard to make this team.

"That doesn't mean you don't want more shots later. We'll always welcome a lot of picks. But it doesn't force you to panic about the situation we're in right now with how many picks we have. So it fits our roster but it also fits kind of like what we just talked about—the current status of this draft and then moving forward what next year looks like as well."

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