Now sporting an encouraging 5-3 record under first-year head coach Ben Johnson, and armed with plenty of tradeable contracts and future draft equity, the Chicago Bears seemed primed to make a splash by Wednesday's trade deadline.
MORE: Chicago Bears acquiring Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in trade with Cleveland Browns
No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams seems to be rounding into form, and some clever Johnson trick plays also have done just enough to goose the team's offense and keep opposing coverages befuddled.
Instead, the club acquired defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and one future seventh-round pick. It was a fairly modest haul for a team that could at the very least return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
Chicago's controversial trade deadline
The Tryon-Shoyinka deal was derided by AllSportsPeople' own Daniel Chavkin as the single-worst deadline-day trade.
Per The Chicago Tribune's Brad Biggs, team general manager Ryan Poles explained that he and Johnson were aligned on one key aspect of their roster construction: trusting the process and adding youth through the draft.
“That was part of our conversation when we talked about how we want to build this team,” Poles said. “That’s through the draft. I’ll tell you what, this staff — I’m sure you all see it — the development of some of these players, whether it’s Booker or if it’s (linebacker) Noah Sewell, those guys have continued to get better.
“I think they’ve closed a pretty big gap with this new staff," Poles added. "So that gets me even more excited and gets Ben excited to watch our coaches work with these young players that we draft, that are young now, that we draft in the future to have a big role on our team.”
Poles credited Johnson with being able to think bigger picture and being more open to winning later than winning now.
“A lot of times you get into these moments and you get tunnel vision about right now: What do I need to do?” Poles said. “His ability to see short term and long term for us to be able to have those conversations is, as a front-office person, really awesome to have.
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