Ryan Poles on drafting Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze: 'It's time to change' | Chicago Bears

Okay, I'll start. I just want to say, "Thank you to my staff." A really successful night, but it takes many hours of travel to get players like this on our team. I want to thank our coaches for the partnership that we have on the roster, a really good partnership in terms of completing all the draft preparation and the players lined up on our board, which is great and lastly, I just want to thank Kevin and George for the resources they put into this. Um, that allows us to do this work at a high level. Really excited if you'd told me we'd end up with Caleb and Rome.

Weeks ago, I would have said you were crazy, but there were two guys who were obviously really crazy. I'm excited to have not only really good players, but also really good people who will continue to improve our locker room and our team, so I'll open myself up to questions: When did you know Caleb was going to be the Answer for you, the direction you're going in to be a quarterback, yes, it's two parts, like when you watch the tape, it was easy to see the talent, I wanted it on our team, but it was about going through the process, so once.

We had our 30th visit and spent

time

with him, met him with some of the guys on our team and felt good about the culture fit. At that moment I knew he was going to help us and we were ready to do it. go R, you had three work groups, receiver tackle determined, you know who won that competition. Now I don't know, so the other day I asked them if they had the opportunity to choose, I don't know where. R was on your personal board, but I said if you had the opportunity to draft Edge's third receiver or maybe top D tackle, how would you go about that process?

What would make the recipient ultimately the answer for you? Taking a step back, it wasn't so much as a specific position group. The players, you know, like I told you the other day, Ian and I sequenced the board all the way and Rome was very high on that list, so he was nervous. that he wasn't going to be there at 9: um, our simulations were about a 50-50 chance if he was going to be there, um, but when it started, Ian had to stop me from trying to switch and I did something crazy to catch him, uh , but it ended up working very well.

Knowledge from the beginning. I'm sorry, what was your knowledge from the beginning of the training that you had with Rome and Caleb with DJ that came out there, yeah? I found out it was maybe two days ago that that showed up and I thought it was pretty cool. Still, at the

time

I was nervous that it wasn't going to work or that we would have to do something to fix it. make that work um so when I found out that was great and obviously now that group has worked together which is good Ryan we talk you see you see all the talent that's obvious you see what he brings to your Finally, how do you make sure the Bears do this right?

Yeah, that's a great question, the infrastructure has to be there and I think we've done that part to have the talent around our quarterback now, I think the other thing is our entire organization is going to have to be on the same page. about how we handle this, how we develop, Caleb, but I will also say that I think we have a very good approach with all the players um and I think that's different than maybe it was in the past the way we take it really seriously in terms of development from a nutritional standpoint to performance um mental skills um how our coaches teach I think we've made some really good strides there, but it's going to take everyone and everyone being on the same page, we have to adapt to the strengths and weaknesses that the player has.

Ryan, Caleb said, you know, I asked. He asked him a question about the history of the Bears, the history of the quarterback, how he hasn't done well and he said that he had questions for you and that you explain things to him a lot, what were those conversations like? a sense for everyone in the organization of what we were in terms of what is our direction what is our north star how are we going to get there and I think through our actions we have demonstrated that and you I know that history is history as if I'd be done talking about it like we go back so far all the time and those days are over so we're bringing players here that really want to

change

everything and and do things in a different way um obviously we love our history here um but it hasn't been easy recently um and it's time for a

change

so I feel like we need to stop going back all the time Ryan what are the specifics? from Rome's skill set that he was the number one receiver for you guys and that really was a draw for you guys, man.

I don't know where to start with that guy, uh, first of all, the human being, what a great guy, um, work ethic, um. just a worker in the way he does things but as a receiver he can line up anywhere inside outside uh you love his ability to finish and contested situations he plays hard uh he plays great run after catches very well he's also a returner of bombs um I mean the kids just put in the time and got better every year and he's the winner. He can impact the game at any time if you're a quarterback and you have doubts and you want to just give a guy a chance. to finish, he's his guy, um, he's done it consistently Ryan Ryan after nine, how was the rest of the night for you guys?

Was there talk of maybe even trying to get back into the first round for a third pick? What was it? The rest of the night, like after the ninth pick, um, every year there's that teenage or twenty-something feeling, you think maybe we can get back in, but then you start to see what it would take and we'd just hurt ourselves. themselves. um for this year and next year, we don't have a ton of preliminary capital this year to even do that, so we just take it all in stride, talk about our evaluations, look forward to tomorrow and we'll see um. how that's going to play out what positions are going to be what opportunities are we going to get calls right for number nine did you get calls for number nine yeah yeah there were a ton of calls we made calls every time I think that's just It's kind of standard practice so everyone has an idea of ​​where everyone is, but nothing crazy.

I know you had a different perspective when you saw Caleb in 2023, but I'm curious if he was at Oklahoma or his Heisman year. game of his or do you remember the first time he caught your attention uh I was watching the Texas Oklahoma game for sure and it was like who is this kid um some of those shots were ridiculous um and then you follow a little bit players as you go along and watch to Addison, um, what was it last year or two years ago? You saw the talent well, everything that went into this quarterback decision and got you to this point, how does it feel for you to be at the end? line and having Caleb as your quarterback Finish line of the process, yeah, yeah, it feels great, he's a guy that has all the tools, but it's going to take hard work, he's going to get it in sync with his teammates, there's a long road ahead to develop the places where he needs to develop to win games and bring a championship here, but the beautiful thing is we have the right people here, we have the right teammates and I feel great about that, Ryan.

As it turned out, how many quarterbacks in this class were worth starting over with a rookie instead of keeping Justin? Can you say that again, I'm sorry, how many quarterbacks in this class, if in your mind, would be worth starting over with a rookie? against keeping Justus I'm not even down like I didn't even think that way um it was Caleb and obviously we looked at the other players uh but we decided for Caleb what that journey has been like for you from 2022 to the group that you have now, I mean the group that you inherited and then some of the obstacles in the way of ending what you have now yeah, I'm excited, I'm excited, we've done a good job, um, we've brought Once again, a It's one thing to bring talent, but another to bring talent who are good people and great teammates.

I mean, the things these guys have been doing over the last few weeks is incredible, just seeing how close they are. everyone is um, but yeah, we, we're looking at today what the roster looks like and um, it's been a journey. I know it hasn't been that many years, but it feels like it's been a lot of years, so we've done a good job. but obviously, like I said the other day, we were able to beat Ryan, how would you say Caleb and Shane got along and what was their involvement? Obviously, it sounds like it was an easy decision for you, but specifically he's going to be directing you on what to do, yeah, no, it's been really cool to see you come out there at the pro day to hear about some of the zooms they've done over the last few years. weeks, just getting to know them. others to talk about baseball, so that relationship had to be there and that was also part of our process.

Now that the first round is over, I'm sure there are some guys that you thought might have gone that have gotten away. that got out of that first round, they always talk, they often talk about flexibility, you guys have two seconds next year, which gives you some flexibility to maybe see what's available in terms of promotion tomorrow, potentially, potentially, we'll see how You can see the numbers, um. and just to evaluate if that's something we need to do so that you have just the four picks, just having had double-digit picks. I think you had 10 last year, 11 the year before and now four, it feels like that. empty at all, I mean, I know you're happy with what you did in the offseason and what you did with those picks, but it must feel strange to only have four picks with one and nine, it doesn't feel that strange, um.

It will feel strange after the fourth round. Is higher. I'm probably just going to work out or something you said earlier about not wanting to do something crazy and move up. When did you get the feeling tonight that Rome was going to be there? at 9: When I mean, were there any nerves up there thinking that the dominoes were starting to fall the right way for you guys? Yes, there were definitely nerves. There were a couple of moves ahead of us. And then what we do, our professional staff does a good job of just identifying the needs of different teams.

Our analytics team puts sort of percentages of where guys can go, so we really took advantage of that and, you know, once we got to seven, we started to feel pretty good that he could do it. like it's going to fall your way like something happened before you um not specifically, though well, the Atlanta election, though I mean is that what you were expecting, no, I'm just happy that it worked out that way, Brian, how? project Caleb's intuition for the position, you know his instincts, like knowing how to feel the Blitz and manipulating defenses and just wanting a team to get to the finish line, how important that is to you and then where do you do it? do you project?

Yes, instincts are for anyone. Positions are so important that it's us, we often look at the things you can train and the things you can't train, and when you have the things you can't train and we can develop the other parts, you feel good about it, so he is . I have special instincts um awareness especially in the pocket you know how to manipulate the pocket getting in and out of the pocket um spatial feeling of space is uh it's special um that's its special sauce and once we speed things up and start identifying different coverages and it has a adjustment in an NFL offense that he has to go through as well, so we're really excited to work with the tools that he has right when you focused on how Caleb operates in the Grab what caught your eye in the big moments, yeah , you look for Poise, guys, that the game slows down for them in those critical moments, that they are able to, you know, make those special throws when you need them. especially down the stretch, that clutch is really, really good, and you need those games for the amount of close games we have in this league.

You have to have guys that can finish, especially in two-man drills and things like that. What about how he faced adversity? I know last year wasn't always easy because yes, we had conversations about that and I think it's the best thing that could have happened to him, because that's going to happen in the NFL. You're going to have down weeks, months, and you're going to have to find a way to get through them. You will have to take advantage of different resources to overcome them and play at a high level again. So I think going through that adversity helped him continue to really find the Edge of him, but also bounce back when things aren't going well, going back to Jason's question about the receiver room journey, where do you think? your own journey, did you learn to rinse and overcome the mistakes?

Sometimes Jmm is a little reluctant to acknowledge and then turn away from a mistake. you seem to be a lotmore willing to say that didn't really work, let's move on, yeah, I guess. I've mentioned this before, everyone knows I played with Matt Ryan and then he was with the Falcons and I called him to ask him a question with the roster and he was like the players always. You know the locker room you always know, so if you're going to tell them say put their egos aside or take ownership of things, but then you have someone who will stick with you, you know a certain player longer just because they picked him and they don't want that to show up on their record.

The players know it. And if you're going to be consistent, not hypocritical, you have to do it the right way. So that was always in my head, but quarterbacks have to do it. So much responsibility that you know on and off the field with your teammates and with the media. What is it about Caleb that makes you think he'll be able to handle that in this market with this team? He is highly competitive and wants to be great. and he has a passion for the game, if you have those, um, you're going to be fine, whatever environment you're in, you know, obviously, through the ups and downs, you're going to have to have a thick skin and you're I'm going to make some mistakes here or there and how you recover and learn from it is the most important thing because he is a guy who learns from parts of his journey and parts of those you meet in adverse times and recover from.

I think it will be fun, it seems like he also has comfort in his own skin, yes, he has a lot of comfort in his own skin, which is good to see, thank you, thank you.