The Bears Have Ben Johnson. They Still Have a Ryan Poles Problem.

Three weeks ago, I asked whether there was a bridge out ahead for the Chicago Bears.

Now the preseason is over. The roster cuts are in.

And that fucking bridge is starting to look awfully shaky.

The questions I had in August were simple: Can the Bears protect Caleb Williams? Can they rush the passer? Can this roster survive when the games stop being cute and start becoming January football?

I did not need another speech from Halas Hall. I needed evidence.

Well, we got some.

Since Ben Johnson arrived in Chicago, only about 20 players remain from the original roster he inherited.

Twenty.

So let's stop pretending we don't know whose team this is. Ben has a blueprint. He knows the offense he wants, the players he wants, and the standard he expects.

The problem is that Ryan Poles is still the man buying the groceries.

And after the Bengals game, the Titans game, and these roster cuts, I have one simple question:

What the fuck are we doing here?


THE WARNING SIGN WAS REAL

In my last post, I asked one question:

WHO THE FUCK IS RUSHING THE PASSER?

That was not me searching for something to complain about. It was Football 101.

Then Cincinnati put backup offensive linemen on the field against members of the Bears' starting defense, and Chicago still couldn’t create pressure.

Not a little pressure.

No fucking pressure.

Anthony Munoz, one of the greatest tackles ever to play the game, talked about it during the broadcast. Cincinnati kept rotating backup quarterbacks into the game, and those guys had enough time in the pocket to read a newspaper, call their mothers, and decide what they wanted for dinner.

What's that telling you?

It is telling you this defensive line is still getting pushed out of the club because it showed up wearing sneakers.

And what the fuck was the Odenigbo signing? You spent money on a defensive end who gave you almost nothing while the team still needed a legitimate pass rusher and a real answer at left tackle.

That is roster construction by an actress playing a general manager.

I like Dennis Allen. I think he is a smart defensive coach. Last season, he did everything he could with popsicle sticks, chewing gum, and Q-tips.

But this defense is still a fucking gingerbread house.

It looks expensive. It looks nice from the sidewalk. Then the weather gets bad and the whole thing starts leaning to one side.

Allen can blitz. Then he can disguise the blitz. Then he can put a mustache on the blitz and call it something else.

But Matthew Stafford, Jalen Hurts, Jared Goff, and Patrick Mahomes are not going to panic because a safety moved toward the line of scrimmage. The better the quarterback, the faster he finds the hole you created by sending extra people.

The Bears have one of the most expensive defenses in football. At some point, somebody up front has to beat the man blocking him.

Joe Burrow had a field day. If he had played the entire preseason game, he might have put up 40.

That is not me being negative.

That is me watching the fucking game.


THE LEFT-TACKLE RECEIPTS ARE IN

I already made the left-tackle case in August. I am not going to give everybody Football 101 again.

Here are the new receipts.

Jedrick Wills was signed in March and released in August. Another maybe. Another answer that wasn’t an answer.

Kiran Amegadjie is gone, too.

That one still makes me want to pull my fucking hair out. Poles used the 75th pick on a project tackle with a previous injury when the Bears desperately needed stability at one of the most important positions in football.

I called it the day it happened. It was a joke of a pick.

Poles thought he had found a future starting left tackle. What he actually bought was a flat bag of hopium. That one start against Minnesota on Monday Night Football told you everything: Kiran was not ready, and the Bears had no business acting surprised.

And somehow Braxton Jones is still hanging around this conversation 45 years later. At this point, the man must have Polaroids of the McCaskey family.

I love Ozzy Trapilo. I think he has a chance to become a good player.

But the local media talks about Ozzy returning like Jonathan Ogden and Walter Jones are waiting outside Halas Hall to hand him a gold jacket.

Slow down.

Four years into the Ryan Poles experience, the Bears are still building Caleb's blind side with popsicle sticks.

For decades, we begged this franchise to find a quarterback. Now it finally has one, and the plan is to protect him with a group project?

Enough.


THE ROSTER CUTS ARE RYAN POLES' REPORT CARD

Roster cuts are not just about the bottom of the depth chart. They are receipts. They show you which evaluations worked and which ones were absolute shit.

Wills was gone.
Kiran was gone.
Ruben Hyppolite was gone.

Jack Sanborn surprised me. I know he is not the fastest linebacker on the field, but he sees the play, runs straight toward it, and hits whoever has the fucking ball. Sometimes football does not need to be more complicated than that. I hope he finds his way back.

But Hyppolite?

That one makes me want to sidekick my television through the wall.

Poles took him in the fourth round of the 2025 draft, 132nd overall! It felt like a reach the second it happened. He was not invited to the Combine. Most boards had him going much later or becoming a priority free agent.

Even Poles joked that people were not ready for the pick.

You fucking serious, bro?

No shit we were not ready. Nobody thought you would actually do it.

The pitch was elite speed, intelligence, toughness, special teams, and eventual linebacker depth.

What did the Bears get? Shit.

Seven games.

Thirty-one defensive snaps.

Six tackles.

Mostly a healthy scratch or special-teams player, followed by a shoulder injury and a waiver designation one year later.

You drafted a linebacker who could run fast but could not stop the run or cover.

I fucking called that, too.

And remember how the Bears got there. They had pick 109. They traded back to 132 and added pick 169. Hyppolite came from 132. The extra fifth-rounder became Zah Frazier, another fucking joke of a pick, and he did not last either.

The trade back was not the problem.

The evaluations were the problem.

At 109, the Bears could have taken Purdue lineman Marcus Mbow, whom I loved during the draft process.

Instead, Poles got cute, moved back, and spent valuable draft capital on a linebacker most people expected to be available much later.

Put Hyppolite next to Velus Jones Jr., Zacch Pickens, Tyler Scott, and Kiran Amegadjie. At some point, these stop being isolated misses and become a pattern of shit in the middle rounds.

Yes, every general manager misses. I understand that. The draft is hard. Nobody bats a thousand.

But Rams GM Les Snead went seven straight drafts without making a first-round pick, traded premium selections for proven veterans, won a Super Bowl, and then returned to the first round and took Jared Verse.

That is a plan.

Seahawks GM John Schneider worked his way out from under the expensive Legion of Boom and Russell Wilson years while keeping Seattle competitive with Geno Smith.

That is knowing what the fuck you are doing.

The Bears may have 11 rookies. Great. The jury is still out on them, and it is absolutely still out on the man who picked them.

If Ben Johnson wasn’t standing next to him, Poles' ass would be completely exposed.


NOW FOR SOMETHING FUN: TYSON BAGENT CAN PLAY

The Titans game did give us something fun, and Bears fans should enjoy it.

Bagent can play.

I have said that since the Buffalo preseason game years ago. I saw it then. Ben sees it. Caleb sees it. And Bagent proved it again against Tennessee.

He completed 16 of 17 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. On the Bears' first offensive snap, he hit rookie Zavion Thomas for a sick 97-yard touchdown.

And do not give me that shit about backups and third-stringers.

There are quarterbacks in this league right now who are so full of shit, they couldn’t throw their girlfriend a roll of toilet paper from the hallway through an open bathroom door.

TB17 can play.

He belongs in this league, and his time will come. I just hope it does not come through a Mo Lewis-Drew Bledsoe moment involving Caleb.

Zavion Thomas looked great. Roschon Johnson looked great. Bagent looked like a real NFL quarterback running a real NFL offense.

That matters.

But both things can be true.

You can enjoy Bagent throwing a 97-yard touchdown and still notice the Bears' line getting pushed backward and the pass rush disappearing against backups.

That is not being a so-called negative Bears fan.

That is having two eyes.


WE HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE - ONLY BACKWARD

The whole thing gives me a flashback to the Lovie Smith years.

I loved Lovie.

Those defenses were lights-out. They could give the rest of the league CTE just by walking out of the tunnel. They were fast, violent, disciplined, and capable of winning games themselves.

But Lovie never truly solved quarterback.

The Bears had championship defenses and never gave them the offense they deserved. I was devastated those teams never reached the promised land because one side of the football was ready and the other side never caught up.

Now, roughly 20 years later, the whole thing has flipped.

The Bears finally have Caleb Williams. They finally have an offensive coach who knows exactly what he is doing. Ben took one of the worst offenses in football and turned it into a real weapon.

And now Poles cannot give him a settled left tackle or a defensive front that can rush the passer.

It is the same fucking movie with the offense and defense switching costumes.

Back then, the Bears could stop everybody and could not score.

Now, people think Caleb and Ben will score 40 every week and walk straight into the Super Bowl.

That shit is hilarious.

You still have to stop the other team. That is how football works.


BEN JOHNSON MAY HAVE TO SAVE THIS TEAM FROM ITS OWN FRONT OFFICE

This is where Ben comes in.

He has already changed the roster, the offense, and the standard. Eventually, he may have to sit down with George McCaskey and the entire family like the Ned Beatty-Howard Beale scene in Network and tell them the truth:

You may own this team, but you do not know how to build it.

If you want me to take you to the next step, this is what I need.

A legitimate left tackle.

A defensive front that does not get pushed backward.

A pass rusher who can win without Dennis Allen sending half the defense.

And football people who can evaluate players and finish the job.

Do not fucking tell me a head coach cannot force that conversation.

Sean Payton told Denver that Russell Wilson had to go. The organization swallowed an enormous dead-cap hit because Payton believed it was necessary to build the team correctly.

That is putting your foot down.

That is saying, 'If you want me to cook, stop filling the kitchen with expired fucking ingredients.'

Ben may have to play this season and let the evidence speak for him. Maybe the defense proves me wrong. I hope it does. Maybe the left-tackle situation holds together. I hope that happens, too.

But if Caleb and this offense become everything we think they can be while an expensive defense still cannot stop anybody, the entire world will see the problem.

Ryan Poles has missed too often in the middle rounds. He has failed to solve left tackle. He built the defense from the back end while the front still cannot knock a quarterback off his spot.

And no amount of trust-the-process bullshit can hide that forever.

Meanwhile, the pimp president can put the stadium renderings away. Build the defensive line before you build another imaginary stadium.

Win football games.

Protect Caleb.

Rush the other quarterback.


THE BRIDGE IS STILL AHEAD

I believe in Ben Johnson.

I believe in Caleb Williams.

I believe Tyson Bagent belongs in this league.

I believe this offense can be fucking special.

But I also believe what I have watched for the last four years.

Three weeks ago, I wondered whether there was a bridge out ahead for the Bears.

Now we have seen the preseason. We have seen the roster cuts. We have seen Ryan Poles' latest receipts.

The warning sign was not a joke.

The Bears finally found the quarterback and the coach.

Now they have to decide whether they are willing to waste them just to protect the general manager who still cannot finish the damn roster.

Not the stadium.

Not the renderings.

Not the hopium.

Protect Caleb Williams.

Pressure the other quarterback.

And if Ryan Poles cannot do those two basic fucking things, find somebody who can.

See you on September 13.



As of Today, the Chicago Bears are valued at approximately $8.2 billion.

We're waiting…