Poles sticks to his "best player available" mantra for the 2026 NFL Draft, proving last year's successful approach.
The 2026 NFL Draft will be right here before you know it.
The Chicago Bears are picking No. 25 overall after reaching the Divisional Round of the playoffs. Last season, they got quite the return on their rookie class.
The Bears selected Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, Ozzy Trapilo, Shemar Turner, Zah Frazier, Ruben Hyppolite, Luke Newman and Kyle Monangai. Out of the eight players they drafted, four of them saw significant playing time as rookies.
Loveland established himself as a receiving threat, leading the team with over 700 receiving yards. Burden and Trapilo had starting roles in 2025, with Monangai among the draft's best steals.
At the NFL Combine, General Manager Ryan Poles was asked about his philosophy heading into this year's draft. Poles shared that he isn't changing his approach to the draft from last year and is focusing on taking the best player available.
"Yeah, philosophically, I feel the same," Poles said. "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 the early rounds like one, you really got to pick 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 into that philosophy."
We saw how effective that approach can be in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Bears selected Loveland 10th overall, and it paid dividends. Although there were other, more obvious needs that the Bears could've filled by taking a different player, Poles liked what he saw in Loveland and made his decision.
The Bears will have needs at safety, edge rusher, left tackle and now potentially linebacker. Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker had their contracts expire, with Ozzy Trapilo's injury expected to sideline him for most of the 2026 season.
Now, Chicago has granted linebacker Tremaine Edmunds permission to seek a trade on Wednesday. If the Bears can find a suitable trade partner and deal Edmunds, the move would grant the franchise $15 million in cap space.
With all of that to consider, I think Poles has earned the trust of this fanbase when it comes to the draft. The 2026 NFL Draft is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from April 23-25.