Bear Digest

Emotional Ryan Poles Rejects Velus Jones Jr. Trade in Hard Knocks Finale

Emotional side of Ryan Poles comes out in the roster cutdown episode of HBO's Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Chicago Bears,

Gene Chamberlain

Velus Jones Jr. was coveted by an unnamed team in the final Hard Knocks episode and Ryan Poles even revealed a minimum price.
Velus Jones Jr. was coveted by an unnamed team in the final Hard Knocks episode and Ryan Poles even revealed a minimum price. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
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While the fourth episode of Chicago Bears HBO's Hard Knocks ended with an emotional hug between injured Ian Wheeler and his mother Beaura, the emotion in the final episode belonged mostly to GM Ryan Poles.

So did the big revelation.

It was cutdown day at Halas Hall and Poles really had to have a moment when he met with safety Adrian Colbert to tell him the dream of playing for the Bears had ended.

One line from Poles at the beginning of the show summed it up well.

"Yes, you want to keep everybody but we're not in that space anymore," Poles said. "It's time to win."

It didn't keep him from having a few tearful moments.

Cutting Colbert proved difficult to say the least. Colbert is the safety they signed to their practice squad in November of 2022 and kept around on the team and practice squad the last two years. He had a backstory told earlier in the series of surviving at age 9 after being hit by a car traveling at a high speed while riding his bike.

Poles gave Colbert a hug when they met on cutdown day and then had to leave the office for several moments when he became too emotional.  Colbert was the steady rock through it all and explained why he appreciated his time in Chicago.

"You know you don't really find many places like that," Colbert said. "Everybody wants you to be the same, everybody wants you to be exactly like the next person. This place has allowed me to really be me. I think that alone has allowed me to thrive on the field and off the field.

"I just wanted to tell you I appreciate that."

He added, "The organization has become the favorite of all the places I've been that allowed me to find that love for the game."

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Colbert has been with San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Kansas City, the New York Giants and Jets, New England, Tennessee and the Bears and has been released by all after a stretch with the team.

HBO gave some background into why Poles has some tough times cutting players and it goes back to when he was cut as a Bears offensive lineman himself.

The final episode also focused on their backup quarterback situation and Velus Jones winning a roster spot.

Brett Rypien wound up in Minnesota when the Vikings were willing to put him on the 53-man roster. The Bears wanted him for the practice squad after deciding to keep two quarterbacks on the roster, and Rypien was willing to stay unless another team was going to add him to the regular roster. And the Vikings did.

Austin Reed joked at one point how he might end up back in Jacksonville working at Chili's but as it turned out he met with assistant GM Ian Cunningham and thought he was done, but was brought back for the practice squad spot that would have been Rypien's.

After Rypien was told by his agent he had a job with the Vikings, HBO tagged along after he left Halas Hall and he had impactful comment about the Bears.

"They're going to be great, so I'm excited for them," Rypien said.

Jones' conversion to running back provided a happy ending for a player they seem to want to make the team, the man now known as the Ferret King. The coach's meeting to discuss cuts provided the story behind why they kept him.

"This guy's a potential game changer for me in certain spots," coach Matt Eberflus said.

Running backs coach Chad Morton lauded Jones' ability to pick up the skill set needed to run with speed and power like a back in so short a period of time.

"The strides Velus made week to week, outside of just the big runs it was the inside runs," offensive coordinator Shane Waldron agreed, during the discussion. "That's a tough skill set to bypass."

The biggest revelation of episode 5 was that another team actually was seeking to trade for Jones, who had been a third-round pick in 2022. Apparently they low-balled Poles on the offer.

"I would never go below a four," Poles said in discussion about the trade. "The value doesn't make sense on paper."

The plan is to use Jones as a running back at times, as well as as a kick returner and special teams coordinator Richard Hightower also said he plans to use him as a gunner.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.