‘That’s what we felt like was best,’ Poles says about Bears’ personnel moves

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles had a quieter start to free agency compared to years past.

A week after Poles traded DJ Moore, released linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, had center Drew Dalman suddenly retire and traded for center Garrett Bradbury, he mostly filled holes on the roster instead of taking a big swing for a top free agent.

He’ll continue to fill out the roster before fully turning his attention to April’s draft. Here are three of the most interesting things Poles said Thursday.

On key departures

Both Poles and Bears coach Ben Johnson said the team would have to make some tough decisions heading into the offseason. That included more than a few tough goodbyes, whether they were expected or not.

Chicago decided not to re-sign veteran leaders like Edmunds and safety Kevin Byard, who signed with the Patriots after Chicago signed Coby Bryant. The Bears also traded away Moore, and Dalman surprised them with his sudden retirement.

“I appreciate everything those guys that aren’t here did for our organization to help us ascend and get better and get us on the doorstep of being a championship-caliber team,” Poles said.

Poles didn’t get into too much detail about Dalman’s retirement. He wished Dalman the best and was proud of how quickly his staff worked to trade for Bradbury.

In terms of players like Byard, Poles explained that the team had a plan for certain players to come back. But once the Bears saw the landscape of what was available, primarily at safety, they felt like Bryant’s speed and physicality was exactly what defensive coordinator Dennis Allen looked for in his defense.

Trading Moore, whom Poles called one of his favorite players, was a tough decision. But it was one that Poles and even Moore realized had to be made given Moore’s expensive contract and the young, talented players in the receiver room. Moore did send a video to Poles’ child to explain it was all just a business decision.

“There’s a financial piece of it but you’re also looking at the room,” Poles said. “And when you have Rome Odunze, and how talented he is. I know he went through some injuries last year. You look at what Luther did. Again, that’s why you follow the draft board. I did not expect Luther Burden to be where he was, and he showed up and showed some big-time flashes. Every time that dude touches the ball, special things can happen.

“And then obviously our tight end is a special player as well. So with that said, you have to look at different moves that are going to help you continue to build your football team and that’s what we felt like was best.”

On a quieter free agency

While the Bears made some moves over the past couple of weeks, they didn’t make a splashy move.

Many fans hoped the Bears would take a big swing for one of the top free agents like defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who ended up signing with the Baltimore Ravens. Others wanted Poles to make a big trade for Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, whom the Ravens originally traded for last week before they backed out of the deal.

But Poles repeated a line he’s used for most of the offseason. He wanted to make decisions that would benefit the Bears both in the short term and the long term.

“We want to sustain success,” Poles said. “We talk about that a lot. In order to do that, we have to be very calculated with the moves we make. So when we were looking into different situations, we took that into account. We felt like sticking with our plan going into free agency, that was the best thing for us.”

That doesn’t mean that the Bears didn’t reach out. Poles confirmed that he did check in on what it would take to trade for Crosby before Las Vegas attempted to trade him to Baltimore.

“We’re always going to monitor every situation,” Poles said. “Sometimes it fits and it works with what you’ve got going on in terms of resources, sometimes it doesn’t. We were involved. We checked into it. We looked to see if it made sense, had some dialogue, but I’ll just leave it at that.”

On what Bears searched for in free agency

Although the Bears didn’t land a big fish, that doesn’t mean the Bears weren’t successful in free agency, Poles said.

“We wanted to get faster and more explosive, and I think we did that,” Poles said. “I know we did that. We want guys that are passionate about football, that play our style and our brand of football and I know we did that. And then especially the leadership to continue to enhance our roster so that we can continue to push forward, be a championship-caliber team. I know we got better through this phase.”

The Bears added plenty of speedsters on defense. Bryant and linebacker Devin Bush proved last year that they can get to the ball quickly and make an impact by forcing turnovers. Rotational players like defensive tackle Neville Gallimore, defensive end Kentavius Street and cornerback Cam Lewis also play with speed.

Poles and the coaches noticed that they needed to play with more speed toward the ball defensively during their final stretch of last season and the playoffs. They feel like they found that this week.

“In order to play the style we want to play, we need to be able to close on the football a lot faster than we have been doing,” Poles said. “So that was the emphasis going into this. And again watching those guys’ tape, we answered that.”