Hub: Bears have moved from rebuild to teardown

So with the first week of free agency and the NFL's 2022 new league year now in the books, what have we really learned about Ryan Poles' plans for the Chicago Bears?

We've known for several weeks now since he dealt Khalil Mack away for a less than impressive return that a rebuild was in fact underway.

But there are rebuilds and there are rebuilds, and if the last week has shown us anything, it's that Poles intends to tear this fixer-upper down to the studs.

A few weeks ago, Hall of Famer Bill Polian was quoted as saying, "You need 10 to 12 blue-chip talents to be in the hunt," and he believed from folks he'd talked to that the Bears had six to eight at the time.

Those six to eight talents most likely included Allen Robinson, David Montgomery, Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn, Akiem Hicks, Roquan Smith and Jaylon Johnson, and you could include Tarik Cohen and Jakeem Grant as blue-chip return men.

Perhaps you could make an argument for James Daniels and Eddie Jackson and Justin Fields is absolutely a blue-chip prospect, but none of them has played close to that level in navy and orange consistently enough or at all to earn that distinction.

Now Poles has discarded his two best players, Mack and Robinson, along with Daniels, Cohen and Grant, as well as quality veterans Eddie Goldman, Patrick O'Donnell and Danny Trevathan, while adding Lucas Patrick, Nicholas Morrow, Justin Jones, Al-Quadin Muhammad, Byron Pringle and Equanimeous St. Brown.

Net-net, with it near impossible to imagine Hicks coming back and knowing that while several of Poles' new free agents are intriguing, none can possibly be mistaken for a blue-chipper, the Bears now have only Fields, Montgomery, Quinn (assuming he isn't dealt too), Smith and Johnson to build around.

Poles told us at the scouting combine that he'd be doing most of his free-agent shopping in the second and third waves starting now.

"I mean we have, what is it, 26-27 free agents, so there's a lot of spots we got to fill, so that volume piece is important.

"And the other thing, too, that I've always loved is, usually in that volume piece, you're going to have some players that, they're motivated, they got a chip on their shoulder, and they want to get back into free agency and go at it again. So they play with a purpose."

Patrick, Morrow, Jones and Muhammad all appear to fit that mold, but it still leaves all of their ceilings as not being the reasons the Bears are going to lose rather than the reasons they will win.

Then there's the puzzle as to why Poles would let Daniels leave at a relatively reasonable price - I'm told by several sources with no real effort to retain him - to bring in Patrick when Daniels is five years younger and more talented?

Poles did tell us at the combine he intended to reimagine his offensive line.

"We're going to change it up a little bit just in terms of the style. A lot of those guys, and the message has been clear - we've gotta change body types a little bit. We've gotta get lighter, we've gotta get quicker.

"Through that, I think there's some young talent that just needs to be pressed. That's part of our job is to create competition and bring the best out of them. We'll do that and we'll see if the cream rises to the top."

But if Daniels and the also departed Alex Bars weren't two of those guys, who is?

Lastly, there can be hope the Bears can find a blue-chipper or even two with two 2nd's, a 3rd, two 5th's and a 6th-round pick, but history - as in NFL history not just the Bears' - tells us the odds are against them.

There is nothing wrong with any of this ... yet.

Poles is here because of the mess he's inheriting and the plan - we assume this one - he presented to convince ownership he could fix it.

But the greatest clarity we may have gained from this first week of free agency is the 6-11 Bears may be about to get worse, perhaps a lot worse, before they get better, and how patient you all are going to be with that will be very interesting.

• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush