Where Ryan Poles Has Placed the Bears in Need of Depth Assistance
When the Bears traveled to Washington the previous season to end their 14-game losing streak, they used a variety of substitutes, including a secondary player that was promoted from the practice squad.
They had to make use of a street-purchased running back.
You can never predict when an injury may occur in the NFL, but it can happen at any time to one or both positions. You would have thought they had plenty of depth at cornerback Greg Stroman Jr., who plays in the third slot, and running back Darrynton Evans, who plays in the backfield.
They had three quarterbacks in Matt Eberflus’s first season as coach, and then, without even having played a play, they were down to their third quarterback for a few short moments until Trevor Siemian, the backup, miraculously healed an oblique injury sustained in warmups that prevented Nathan Peterman from participating. Then, in the end, they were forced to perform Peterman.
The Bears experienced a fair quantity of injuries in the previous season, but they were still able to activate players who were placed on injured reserve. Kyler Gordon, Teven Jenkins, Khalil Herbert, and Braxton Jones all spent time on injured reserve. Their last season-ending injury suffered by a starter was Yannick Ngakoue’s broken ankle in Week 13.
With the exception of Dakota Dozier’s season-ending ACL tear during 2022 off-season training, the Bears have been lucky to have avoided the big one.
Strengthening depth is essential.
To ensure that they can withstand the NFL’s yearly war of attrition, GMS must assemble a team with talent.
Their offensive line is one area where they appear to have stacked fairly well. Many tackles have started games, and Kiran Amegadjie is a rookie selected in the third round. As they discovered the past two years, you can never have too much of anything, even though they have good position diversity and numbers at center and guard.
While GM Ryan Poles has done a decent job overall, there are a few areas where it appears to be lacking. Here is a ranked list of those areas.
Keep in mind that experience—both quantity and quality—matters here because a player without experience but supported by one with very little doesn’t exactly announce, “Hey, we’re loaded,” at the position.
