Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles met with the media at Halas Hall on Thursday and revealed that the team spoke with the Las Vegas Raiders about pass rusher Maxx Crosby.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – If the Chicago Bears wanted to pursue some big-name pass rushers in free agency, there were a variety of options.
Maxx Crosby, Trey Hendrickson, Khalil Mack and Jalen Phillips, to name a few. But Bears general manager Ryan Poles didn’t take that approach, electing to make a few smaller signings on the interior defensive line with Neville Gallimore and Kentavius Street.
For the Bears’ GM, he referred to a philosophy that he has stood by to guide him through the decisions he makes and doesn’t.
“Again, I think I’ve mentioned this over the years, just constantly looking at short term, long term,” Poles said on Thursday. “What’s going to help this football team now? But also, being conscious of what’s going to happen down the road. We want to sustain success. We talk about that a lot. In order to do that, we have to be very calculated with the moves we make. So when we were looking into different situations, we took that into account. We felt like sticking with our plan going into free agency, that was the best thing for us.”
So, Poles had to weigh draft capital and cap constraints when assessing potential options. Crosby would have dipped into both areas for the Bears if they had made a move. And Poles shared that he did explore adding one of the league’s best pass rushers.
“We’re always going to monitor every situation,” Poles said. “Sometimes it fits and it works with what you’ve got going on in terms of resources, sometimes it doesn’t. We were involved. We checked into it. We looked to see if it made sense, had some dialogue, but I’ll just leave it at that.”
Poles may have wanted to end the conversation about Crosby with the media, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Chicago’s pursuit of the 28-year-old edge rusher is over. What’s unclear is when the Bears reached out to Las Vegas about Crosby.
Was it before he was initially traded to the Baltimore Ravens or after, when it was called off?
Maybe it was both.
When the Ravens backed out of their trade with the Raiders, Crosby didn't say anything initially on social media, but he eventually posted on X.
Crosby appears content to stay in Las Vegas and play out the season, but that doesn't mean the veteran pass rusher is off the market.
The Bears showed interested in upgrading a major position of need, and that could still be the case for Poles as he continues to navigate free agency.