Ryan Poles Dodges and Dives
The non-answer is an art form in the NFL, particularly with coaches and GMs.
They find ways to answer questions they weren't asked.
Bears GM Ryan Poles might be in his first few months heading an organization's personnel but he already has proven he can provide verbal misdirection with the best of them.
Asked by reporters at the NFL owners meetings about the possibility of defensive end Robert Quinn being traded, Poles answered: "That hasn't come up."
The question actually wasn't whether he had talks with anyone, but whether a trade could occur.
At least it sounds like an honest answer but what he doesn't say is they couldn't because they lack another veteran pass rusher after Khalil Mack was traded. Someone has to provide that outside rush.
Of course, the Bears would trade Quinn if they could get something of value in return and felt like they had someone to rush from the outside.
There wouldn't be hesitation and the fact they would trade Khalil Mack already proves this.
Mack actually was a player who has proven he can play a 4-3 or 3-4 edge, but at this stage of his career is probably better in the 4-3 like the Bears will use. He also was always a much better run defender than Quinn and being more stout against the run is required in the 4-3 when the interior linemen are no longer eating up blockers but are attacking. Quinn had a few seasons when Pro Football Focus scored him well against the run but for the most part their grades off game film put him in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and 50s is sub-par. He was ranked 86th of 108 edge players against the run last year by them.
In fact, they might be more likely to cut Quinn after June 1 than have him play this season for them. The cap savings they get of $12.9 million after a June 1 trade or cut is too big to expect them to have him on the lineup, especially when they can use some of that money to get a new contract to Roquan Smith. Post June trades are not common mainly because most teams' caps are set but because Quinn's money due is mostly salary, it's more easily consumed by any team with a little cap space and even some without a lot if they want to push the money off to future years like Mister Cap Credit Card, Ryan Pace, used to do in Chicago.
This is all about building cap space for the future. The Bears have a new cap manager according to Poles, the one who did it so well before Pace was GM, Cliff Stein. It wasn't Stein's when they decided to throw away all their cap space by signing Jay Cutler to a ridiculous contract. See Phil Emery for that.
They're all about opening up the cap.
If they can open up more space, be certain they'll trade him if the opportunity comes up.
It just hasn't come up but the Khalil Mack trade couldn't occur until it came up, as well.
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