The hits keep coming for the Chicago Bears after their Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football.
First, it is Hall of Fame-bound quarterback Tom Brady’s video critiquing the quarterback development plans in place at the college and pro resurfacing and giving us an opportunity to view the situation through a different lens. And now, we’ve got Bill Belichick going on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show and criticizing Bears General Manager Ryan Poles for how he has constructed his team.
What a day for Super Bowl champions who used to be employed by the New England Patriots:
“This is really an issue for Chicago, just in terms of their overall team construction, the way that they decide to do it. You look at a team like Detroit in their division. Detroit has got three really good linemen with (Penei) Sewell, (Frank) Ragnow, and (Taylor) Decker. And those guys give, generally, Goff a lot of protection. The Bears have really put their resources into, a lot of money and a lot of draft choices into, receivers. But they’ve had problems on their offensive line and it doesn’t really look like that’s gotten much better.”
If there is one thing I am growing to love about Bill Belichick, the media personality, is his willingness to give honest opinions while offering worthwhile points to compare and contrast. It has been refreshing. Now, if the Bears could give him something fun to dissect that would be wonderful for many reasons. But I digress.
What do you think about Bill Belichick’s criticisms of Bears GM Ryan Poles?
For what it’s worth, Bill Belichick would go on to say that he likes the Bears’ receivers (if they’re all healthy, can you blame him?) and believes rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has a chance to make things happen. But the former head coach also underscores that it will be a challenge with the offensive line in shambles. He even hints that it could get worse before it gets better.
MORE: Bill Belichick Isn’t Impressed by Caleb Williams’ Preseason Performance
Here we are in mid-September and I’m already finding myself digging the honesty from the likes of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. The Belichick critiques are particularly interesting because he is a coaching free agent who could be back in the league as soon as next season. I can’t be the only one thinking that Belichick is racking up knowledge on (and off) camera to deploy whenever he returns to the sidelines.
In the end, I find Belichick’s critiques to be fair and reasonable. The Bears haven’t made the best investments in building their offensive line in the Ryan Poles era. Yes, right tackle Darnell Wright looks like a blue-chip building block in the trenches. Left tackle Braxton Jones is a serviceable player, and a tremendous value considering he was a Day 3 pick in Poles’ first class. Moving Teven Jenkins inside was a heady move, too. But the Nate Davis experience isn’t working. The early returns on Coleman Shelton at center aren’t too encouraging. And Ryan Bates is on injured reserve, making it impossible for me to fairly grade him as part of this collection of linemen.
With that being said, perhaps we should give Ryan Poles some more time to build out the offensive line.
For the sake of fairness, I’d like to point out that tackle Taylor Decker was a Lions first-round pick in 2016. Center Frank Ragnow was a 2018 first-round selection. In other words, both of those picks pre-date this current regime run by Brad Holmes. Bill should be giving Bob Quinn his flowers for those selections. But still … I get where Belichick is coming from. And I hope Ryan Poles picks up the message Bill Belichick is trying to put down โ build out that offensive line as soon as possible.