Ryan Poles Targets Extensions For Sweat And Johnson

Bears GM Ryan Poles says he isn’t afraid to be aggressive in securing the long-term future of his defensive players.

Ryan Poles is under scrutiny as a result of the failed trade for WR Chase Claypool last year. As well as that, the Chicago Bears’ pass-rushing game leaves a lot to be desired this year.

So far, the Bears have ten sacks as a team, which ranks last in the NFL. Recently acquired defensive end Montez Sweat has 33 QB pressures and 6.5 sacks. Sweat has produced at least five sacks in each of his five seasons in the league.

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“I think it’s capitalizing right now because you start to lose opportunities,” Ryan Poles said. 

“If you look at the free agent stack now, it’s going to look very different by the time you get to that point of the year because there are so many different opportunities that can pop up in terms of extensions, [franchise] tags, different things like that. So, we decided with that type of player we wanted to capitalize on that now.

“I try to take a lot of pride in it. You look at things that you do, if they fail or you make mistakes, can you look back at why and address those,” Poles said. “I think the key is that sometimes you become a little bit shy to make aggressive moves as you go forward. But that’s just not how we’re wired.”

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“Here’s the thing. I don’t want to lose Jaylon Johnson,” Poles said. 

“If I were to lose Jaylon Johnson, I would like to have a high percentage of hitting on another Jaylon Johnson, which to me, is a late first and into early second [round draft pick]. Really simple there. That didn’t happen. We are still open to getting a contract done. And I’m going to follow Jaylon’s lead on how he wants to go about doing that but we’re still open. And again, Jaylon and I have talked as recently as today.”