Hub Arkush: Draft was solid primer for who Bears' Poles wants to be

The 2022 NFL Draft was an informative and intriguing lesson in just who Bears rookie general manager Ryan Poles is and was our best hint yet as to what his chances of success will be.

On the final day of January, when Poles was introduced as the team's new GM, he told us who he planned to be.

"We're gonna build through the draft. We're gonna acquire young, fast and physical football players."

"We're gonna be selective through free agency."

"And we're gonna connect evaluation with valuation."

"We're gonna have a relentless approach to fix our weaknesses.

"We're gonna make ... great self-awareness of who we are."

Everybody has a winning formula on the first day of the rest of their lives - but is it the right one, and can they execute it?

Clearly in his first stroll through the free agent market, Poles has been selective - in fact, too much so for many Bears fans.

Has he been relentless in his approach to fixing his broken football team?

"We've run simulations of the draft over and over and over and over again to our picks.

"We'd trade. We had guys call in fake trades just to test our communication, test our trade charts, test all of that, to make sure that everything's smooth on game day, and we're just applying that."

That was on Tuesday, still three days before he'd make his first selection.

His commitment to youth was challenged on a few draft choices, but that has to be qualified by the extra eligibility granted to players due to COVID-19 making this a draft with a number of older prospects.

There definitely was a spotlight on speed, toughness and attitude in every pick Poles made, and his commitment to building through the draft is beyond challenged with the number and caliber of quality veteran players he's allowed to leave via free agency and the moves he made to turn six picks into 11.

Most critical to me is his focus on evaluation through valuation that was on display through two different lenses.

Nobody saw DBs coming with the first two picks with the team's glaring needs at receiver and on the offensive line, but Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker are players I had ranked higher than the 39th and 48th best players available, respectively, and there were no wideouts or linemen left who met that criteria.

Then there's Poles' explanation as to why he went speed dating at the trade market early Saturday and then suddenly turned off the tap. "It really was based off the number of players in certain ranges. And then when you felt like the number was getting low, it was time to kind of cut it out and start picking players.

"And there was moments when we said no, we're going to start picking players, and then there was opportunities when we said no, let's move again and get more because that's what the board was telling us to do."

Finally, is Poles displaying "great self awareness of who we are?"

About further improvements he said: "There's still guys on the street, there's going to be cutdown days. There's trade opportunities and it's what I told our group and everyone in this organization. We're just going to keep pounding and pounding, knowing that we can't fix everything in one year but we sure can just keep chipping away."

Poles has been reluctant to simply say he's rebuilding, and there is the silly cluster of fan boys and girls out there who think because they've cleared a bunch of cap space next year, it can get done in one year.

There are at least two full years of work to be done before this team can be expected to contend and by simply stating as fact "we're just going to keep pounding and pounding," Poles is giving us self-awareness in spades.

Is he the right guy at the right time for a franchise in desperate need of a savior?

It's early, ever so early, but so far he's been exactly who he promised he would be and that's an encouraging start.