5 things we learned from the Poles’ pre-draft presser

Poles revealed that the exercise allowed him to learn “a lot about us as a group” and was done “so that we make good decisions and our board is well organized”.

“The key is sometimes you just want to suppress groupthink,” Poles said. “If I polled everyone and you had to raise your hand, sometimes you look around. It just takes that out, and everyone puts their thoughts and ideas in writing and it takes that away. You see it. I put [the results] on the screen and you could hear the oohs and aahs. It was a really cool exercise.”

(2) With only six draft picks, the Poles have reiterated that he hopes he can trade to acquire additional caps.

“For the draft picks, I’d like to do a bit of movement and get more picks, but it has to be in the right area,” Poles said.

The Bears will only trade if they feel they can still land a prospect they covet with the pick or picks they acquire.

“The most important thing is how many players you have at a certain level, so you can go back and get a quality player at that next place,” Poles said. “And when you get kicked out of other picks, that’s an extra player. So where is that draft pick and can I still get a quality player at that level as well? Also, you can hoard stuff in the background and packing things up and moving them around again. So really, it’s just the volume and where the draft is deep at certain positions.

The Bears have their own picks in Rounds 2, 3, 5 and 6. They earned additional picks in the second and fifth rounds in trades that sent outside linebacker Khalil Mack to the Chargers this year and receiver Anthony Miller at the Texans last year. , respectively.

The Bears traded their first- and fourth-round picks to the Giants last April to move up nine spots in the first round to pick quarterback Justin Fields at No. 1. 11. They also sent their seventh-round pick to the Texans in the Miller trade.

(3) Asked about the deepest positions on Days 2 and 3 of the draft, the Poles named four different spots.

“I would say the depth of the O line is pretty good,” he said. “There is good depth with the DBs. There are a few defensive linemen. The running back class might not be that heavy, but there are a ton of them. It’s crazy how many ball carriers that there are.”

“I think it has a lot to do with the COVID year [when all college players were given an additional year of eligibility]. A lot of these guys are retiring, so from the middle down, definitely in free agency, there’s a tremendous amount of players. That’s why it took so long to install the painting, not only at the top but also at the bottom. There are a lot of players on this board.”

(4) Pole said he had “simulated the project again and again and again and again” with his personnel department.

“We’ve had some guys do fake trades just to test our communication, test our trading charts, test all of that, just to make sure it’s going well on game day, and we’re just enforcing that,” said Poles. “I feel really confident at this point and it has a lot to do with really everyone’s work. It’s all been on deck so I’m excited.”

While the Bears aren’t expected to pick until Friday night’s second round, their preparation will continue through Thursday night’s first round.

“It’s going to be fun because we’re spending so much time watching this and seeing how things unfold,” Poles said. “The other thing is there’s going to be an opportunity for us to continue to fake ourselves by having a choice and acting like we’re maybe 10 years old, maybe 20 years old, and just act like if we were in different places and just reconnecting to make sure that when we leave the next day, we’ll be ready.”

(5) When scouting college players, Poles place more importance on how he has seen them play on the pitch over their measurable or combined results.

“I feel like my foundation is old scouting,” Poles said. “That old foundation was established earlier in my career. It has a lot to do with just watching tapes, watching a lot of tapes and understanding that sometimes you take a good football player. Sometimes it’s as simple as that: are you a good footballer?

“Do I think you can use some of these tools and technology and get too cute? Absolutely. But I think my basis is that ultimately I want to take a good football player off because I watched the tape and there’s proof on film. If you get a little funky with, all of a sudden, “the proof is on paper”, you’re playing with fire a little bit. But I like to use the numbers and numbers on paper to confirm what I see and what we see.”