Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Ryan Poles won't stray from 'best player available' approach in NFL Draft

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote listened and reacted to the highlights of Bears general manager Ryan Poles' press conference at the NFL Combine on Tuesday.

Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tindal 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043 The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. We're listening to Ryan Poles' press conference from the Combine. It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Let's resume. Yeah, philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available. I know that may not be the most popular thing because people see kind of like on my board

have yellow tags where we need to fill in. But at the same time, I do believe, especially in early rounds like one, you really got to stick the best player available. We saw that last year. I know there's a lot of questions. Like, you got Cole, why would you take Colston? I think we found out that it helped us along the way. So we'll continue to lean in that philosophy.

How tricky is it to navigate the linebacker position with some of the injuries that Coachman? Yeah, it's really difficult. We spend a lot of time working through that process. There's some unknowns there. There's some projections just in terms of return time. And then you want to know, is that athlete going to return to be the same player he was before? Or could they go downhill?

So there's a lot of projections in that make it a little bit difficult. But I think that's when you lean into versatility, flexibility, and making sure that you get the right person in the room to make sure that that group can be filled out the best they can. I don't know you challenge Yeah, I think the big one

and it's not just in Kansas City you can look across the league I think you and it sounds really simple but you want to

take a good football player that meets the criteria that you're looking for in terms of culture fits play style

intelligence all of those things you really want to lean into that I think sometimes you can get caught in flashy

you're trying to you know that guy should have went in the top 15 and he's because of this reason, but we'll fix that. I think you want a good football player that matches the DNA that you're looking for.

You're not looking for quarterback. You're not with the first quarterback now. There are teams who are. I didn't mean to say that on the air, but let's pause it. My mic was off. No, if you want to stop it, let's just say stop it and they'll stop it. Right, guys? Everybody's on board.

We're good. Stop it makes it sound like it's condescending like the old dickest segment on ESPN where he'd say, stop it. Okay. Pause. How about that? Is that work better? Yeah, which is something. It's like Stacey King with the Telestrator. Let's go ahead and pause that right there.

You just go ahead and pause that right there. There you go. That is where I got that from because Stacy does it all the time. So can I get my signature on that poster now? Okay, good. Okay, so that's big to me that Brian Polsetty wants to still go with best player available at 25 and he knows that's not what everybody loves. And I understand why he wanted to use Colston Loveland as the comp here.

Although I actually think the Bears needed another titan. who is more known to be a pass catcher in his arsenal than what Colquemette was known for. So I think that those are two different roles that we're seeing with Colson Loveland and Colquemette. If a best player available is another receiver at 25, I'm not real sure how that would work. I completely agree with Ryan Poles, especially in early rounds about taking best player available. Better example than Colston Loveland would actually be, I was going to say Colson Montgomery, but that jokes passed. It would actually be Luther Bird and the third,

because I think the Luther Bird and the third was more of a head scratcher, eyebrow-raising pick in the draft last year than Colston Loveland. Everyone could see them taking a tight-in because of Ben Johnson's offense and how things were. He was like, oh, is it going to be Colson Loveland? It's going to be Tyler Warren. But when that Luther Burton III came in,

wait a minute, they already have, and you just go down the list of DJ Moore and Rome and all the other guys. I think the biggest thing here is to understand that there's so many good players at so many different positions that at 25, someone's probably going to fall to them and it's probably going to be better than what they thought they were going to get at 25. That's usually how it works late first round.

I also think that Ryan Poles is for the first time, in a long time, it's showing up the combine. He can have a little pride in his draft. Not only the fact that the Bears won, there is that. He had a good draft year. last year. Colston Loveland, hit, Luther Burden, hit, Ozzie Tripillo, hit, Kyle Minangai, hit, still in question, Shamar Turner, Rubin Hippolyte, Zay Frazier, and Luke Newman. But he had at least four guys who made big contributions to the roster last year. So when he

steps up there and says, best player available, I don't think we roll our eyes as much as maybe would have in the past. And by the way, most GMs are going to say best player available. It doesn't necessarily mean they take the best player. I mean, I think there was an example of best player available at 39 with Luther Burton. I don't necessarily know if the best player available once again at 25 is a receiver. How much like that's the real test, right? If you see that the best player available in the draft is a position you absolutely know they are stocked at. I don't necessarily know if a, they sincerely subscribe to that concept.

Right. They could definitely turn and say, well, we thought that player was the best player available, even if we all think it's a wide receiver. So, yeah, I think that they would pivot unless something happens in the wide receiver room, and we know that there's one person who we are monitoring, and his name is DJ Moore, in terms of, although there hasn't been much talk about that recently, you still have to keep your eye on DJ Moore. You do have to keep your eye on DJ.

you also know that he is a possibility for a restructure of a contract because he's got so many years to work with. So, you know, that's part of it too. The Bears don't have a ton of long-term deals where they could rework and help get some room under the salary cap. Check this out, Leila. If they did, if they restructured the contract of DJ Moore, that they could save 17.5 mil-dough. So that's a big deal. And that was from Fishbane's article. More sweat and Grady Jarrett, if they were to restructure their contracts, that would create $33 million.

Old Joe Tooney, Jonah Jackson, $14 million for potential contract restructure. We haven't talked about that much yet, so I'm glad you brought that up. Well, because Joe Tooney was a restructure, right? It was like an extension, and then they worked with the existing years to be able to. Oh, when they brought him in initially, yes. He was traded for it. then he had existing years on his deal. Then they decided to extend him to help kick that out, I think.

Kick it. I think the restructure is important because of what's going to happen when Caleb gets paid. But also, you restructure, you make a key cut. Sorry, Tremaine Edmonds. All of a sudden, you've got real estate that you didn't have, a runway to add to your roster and improve your roster that you didn't have. And I'm a big fan of kicking the can down the road in the NFL. Best example, Howie Roseman.

that man just keeps kicking the can down the road and it's looked pretty good for those eagles. I'm glad you brought up Tremaine Edmonds as well because I want to get to that. So Ryan Poles was asked a question about the linebacker situation and that is a very injured group right now and you consider Noah Sewell out with the Achilles. T.J. Edwards had to be carted off the field.

He had the broken leg, my goodness sake. And I thought there was a really good comment that Ryan Poles had made when he said, you know, we're trying to figure out timelines and then also, when they return, are they going to be the same player? When you heard that, who did you think of? My initial thought was Sewell because of the Achilles, because Achilles can't hurt people? Did you guys both think of TJ? Oh, absolutely. 100%. Because TJ had not just one, but two debilitating injuries throughout the season. And it wasn't even just the broken leg. You know, he was dealing with multiple injuries. And he's, he wasn't a player

known for injuries until this past year. So that was also something that came to mind. So when you heard that comment about the linebacker, what did you think? Yeah, no, that was the first thing I thought. And of course, you think about Tremaine Edmonds and the possibility of him getting away because that's what we've been hearing from everybody. But yeah, no, I worry about T.J. Edwards. The good thing about T.J. Edwards, though, is he doesn't necessarily depend on, like, high

athleticism and speed to do his job that a lot of what he does well. and he has all that, but he's more instincts and being in the right place. I always go to Lance Briggs as an example. Like Briggs, obviously, a better player than T.J. Edwards, but Briggs didn't have that like outstanding speed, but he was quick as hell, and he knew where to be on the field at all times. Yeah. That's T.J. Edwards.

The instinct plays in this. And look, they understand that they have a lot of injury questions that they will not have answered until probably after the regular season starts. Well, in 847 on our text line says the fact that the easiest to most obvious cut this year, Edmund, hasn't happened yet as interesting. Polls in years past has made these moves prior to this week. There may be other plans for him, trade extension, just weird he hasn't been cut yet. So this is his last year of his deal. So I don't necessarily know that an extension is on the table there when you're in your last year like that.

Well, darnall right's the guy that you've got to think about too. And maybe he will be asked about it. I'm curious if darn all right will come up in this conversation because that he is a candidate for a potential extension. And just to keep people refresh on Tremaine Edmonds, if they were to release him, that's a $15 million cap saving. Colquemette would be an $8.4 million cap saving. And while we're at it, DeAndre Swift, number three with a bullet, a 17, or excuse me, 7.4.47 million. I'll take that team you added on the end of the seven. He would be a $7.47 million cap saving. So those three guys,

that let's see if there's more questions about that. Yeah, and the DeAndre Swift one, that's the one where I really bristle. You know, that's the one where I want to give serious pause if I'm putting a GM hat on. In terms of... Because he's been, in terms of good. In terms of, you want him on this team. In terms of good. And I hope that some of you understand when I said that what I meant.

And if I hear about any goofy games at the Combine this year where they're playing put putt putt or whatever, I better hear the results of these putt-put games, okay? I need to know why that's happening still. Because DeAndre Swift is good. That's what you're saying. He was a good player and he fits in the offense. He's relatively cheap. So let's ride out DeAndre Swift for a more year.

Everyone while you are calling him good. That's inappropriate. The way the mantra starts is good, but then it goes to two other words. And so good might not be good enough in Ben Johnson's eyes. That's all I'm saying. Well, in terms of good was a reference to Maddie Verflus. Oh, no. In terms of good.

Where we're at in terms of good. But I'm saying... I think we should bring it back. Good better best. Take it back. Never let it rest. Bring back flus? No, bring back where we're at in terms of good.

Oh, okay. They were never at good. But yeah. Our culture is awesome. Just to close the circle on past Bears coaches, I saw Mark Tresman tweeted for the first time in a while, and it was complimenting the Team USA hockey team. There's your past Bears coach update. He's proud.

That actually sounded like a real segment. There's your past Bears Coach update. I'm Leila Rahimi with your past Bears coach update. Oh, just because we respect the Olympics. Next hour, Dick Duran! Wayne Larvey. Here is one notable, by the way, 847 was on with the spot on with the roster moon discussion. Because this did happen earlier today.

Ian Cunningham. How about this? Ian Cunningham rolls up to the scene in Atlanta. we know that per Matt Ryan, he's going to be running things. And then it's like, and oh, by the way, we're going to release Kirk Cousins. Now that's a move. That is a massive contract, as we know. I hadn't done the math on the dead money, but we do know that the Falcons plan to release

Kirk Cousins on the first day of that new league year, which is March 11th. We continue to listen and react to Ryan Poles and his press conference is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 1043. he is live from the combine. So before we get into anything else, let's just let you know what he had to say already. They gave us some pause. Number one, he thinks that the bears should get compensation for Ian Cunningham,

leaving the Bears as assistant GM, going to the Falcons as general manager. Cunningham has been quoted on the record at the combine already saying that as well. Matt Feinstein was brought in to discuss football flexibility. He's now the VP of Football Administration. the Bears are trying to get some of that per polls when it comes to flexibility under the cap. He acknowledged that Caleb Williams is on a rookie deal, and then they also want to get the best player available at 25. So that's where we're at in the conversation.

There's more from Ryan Poles coming up here on 104.3 of the score. This is Rahimi, Harrison Grotie. We'll hear it next.