Ryan Poles Almost Lost Two Of His Top Lieutenants At The Same Time

A general manager is only as good as the people he puts around him. Being a smart GM is a good thing. However, having equally intelligent people in your front office can be a huge advantage. It appears the NFL has become aware that the Chicago Bears GM did precisely that when he retooled the front office in 2022. People may not have understood at the time how well-respected Ryan Poles’ top lieutenants were by other teams, but that came into focus a few weeks ago after the regular season came to an end.

According to Adam Hoge of CHGO, assistant GM Ian Cunningham was a finalist for the Washington Commanders GM job. It marked the second straight off-season he came close to running his own team. What many Bears fans didn’t know at the time is he wasn’t the only one. Jeff King, co-director of player personnel, also nearly claimed a GM job with the Los Angeles Chargers. In the end, both organizations went with different candidates.

It was two huge bullets dodged for the Bears ahead of a pivotal off-season.

“The Bears are not only fortunate to retain assistant general manager Ian Cunningham, but they were also in danger of losing co-director of player personnel Jeff King last month. King was a very serious candidate for the Los Angeles Chargers general manager job. In fact, when Jim Harbaugh got the head coaching job with the Chargers, some close to the situation expected King to join Harbaugh in Los Angeles. Instead, Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz got the job, mostly due to the trust built with Jim’s brother, John Harbaugh, in Baltimore.

With Cunningham being a finalist for the Commanders GM job and King nearly getting the Chargers GM job, the Bears’ front office under general manager Ryan Poles remains one of the more respected groups in the NFL right now.”

Ryan Poles can only feel relief at this moment.

He may get most of the credit for the Bears’ moves, but he isn’t stupid. A lot of his success comes from trusting guys like Cunningham and King with key evaluations during each off-season. Chicago had an excellent 2023 run. Free agency saw them land T.J. Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds, and DeMarcus Walker. Then Darnell Wright, Gervon Dexter, and Tyrique Stevenson came in the draft. King even added some additional garnish by pushing for quarterback Tyson Bagent in undrafted free agency. Those players all played pivotal roles in helping the Bears improve from 3-14 to 7-10.

Now King and Cunningham will stick around for March and April, which might be the most crucial in the past decade for the Bears. Ryan Poles has a chance to completely remake the identity of this team with two picks in the top 10 and over $60 million in salary cap space. One of those picks figures to be a quarterback. Every GM lives for this moment. Poles’ predecessors all failed this test. If he can deliver a hit, the Bears will be set up for years of success. Having two trusted friends in the building for one more year could prove decisive.