Bears Hire Chiefs' Ryan Poles as New General Manager

The Chiefs lose a top front-office member but will be rewarded with compensatory draft picks.

The Chicago Bears have reportedly hired Kansas City Chiefs Assistant Director of Player Personnel Ryan Poles as their next general manager, taking a top front-office member away from Kansas City.

Poles, who once signed with the Bears as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College, had spent 13 seasons with the Chiefs and is still just 36 years old. While the Chiefs will now have to replace Poles within their front office, they will also receive two third-round compensatory picks over the next two years.

Good for Poles.

Chiefs will get two third round compensatory picks over the next two years now.

Interesting to see if Bieniemy is an option in Chicago. Makes logical sense but they just had a very bad experience with a former Chiefs OC... https://t.co/ZyMNcNO6wZ

— Conner Christopherson (@Conner_DKC) January 25, 2022

The Bears are reportedly meeting with former Lions and Colts head coach Jim Caldwell on Wednesday, an apparent frontrunner for the head coaching position recently vacated by former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.

Former Lions and Colts’ HC Jim Caldwell is in the Bears’ building today. Matching the experienced Caldwell with the upstart Ryan Poles is a gameplan that some around the league now believe the Bears easily could deploy.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 25, 2022

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Poles was interviewing with Chicago on Thursday and "impressed all the way." Rapoport also shared that Poles has officially accepted the job as of early Thursday afternoon. Within the past 12 months, Poles has interviewed for four general manager jobs and was reportedly a finalist for all of them. By all accounts, Poles is well-respected within the league and is now ascending to take control of an on-the-fly rebuild in the AFC North.

Oct. 13, 2007; South Bend, IN, USA; Boston College Eagles running back Andre Callender (32) celebrates his first quarter touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish with guard Ty Hall (78) and tackle Ryan Poles (72) in the first quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

With Matt Nagy no longer in the picture, Chicago is still on the aforementioned hunt for a new head coach. Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has had several interviews with teams for their open head coaching vacancies over the past two years, although no team has made the move to hire him yet. The connection with Poles is legitimate and now that the new Bears general manager has a say in the hiring process, expect the buzz surrounding potential interest in Bieniemy to only grow louder — even with the Caldwell development taking center stage for the time being.