Ryan Poles didn’t inherit a football team on January 25, 2022. The Bears were broke on the cap sheet and broken in the locker room. He could’ve patched the leaks and hoped for luck, but instead, Poles ate the losses and told fans to trust the process amid weekly beatdowns. “We knew this wasn’t going to be a quick fix,” he said after the 2023 season. After the 7-10 finish.

And this rejuvenated Windy City’s belief in the ‘ big things’. For a moment, it also felt like the vision was working. Draft gems like Darnell Wright and Tyrique Stevenson gave the rebuild real teeth ahead of the ’23 season. But it looked ‘real’ when the possibility of flipping the 2024 Draft’s No. 1 pick into an asset came into the spotlight. Caleb Williams , the golden-ticket quarterback, Chicago h

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