4 Chicago Bears things we heard at the NFL combine, including Tarik Cohen’s status and the assistant GM’s workload

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles touched on a wide range of topics during his news conference at the NFL scouting combine.

Along with supporting the growth of quarterback Justin Fields and valuing the second and third waves of free agency, here are four other things we learned from Poles as he prepares to rework the Bears roster.

1. Poles wants the Bears offensive line to get quicker and lighter.

Poles has a long list of decisions to make on the offensive line, including what he envisions for 2021 rookies Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom and whether the Bears will re-sign guard James Daniels.

He didn’t get into specifics on those players, declining to say what position he expects Jenkins to play. But when asked about his evaluation of the unit, he indicated changes are ahead.

“The message has been clear — we’ve got to change body types a little bit,” Poles said. “We’ve got to get lighter, we’ve got to get quicker. Through that, I think there’s some young talent that just needs to be pressed. That’s part of our job is to create competition and bring the best out of them. We’ll do that, and we’ll see if the cream rises to the top.

“Especially with the O-line play a lot of times — and I don’t want to speak for the coaches — but it’s going to end up being the best five to roll out there.”

A side note on those comments: Poles, who hired Brent Salazar to be the Bears director of high performance, said he’s going to take body fat and weight seriously among all of his players.

Back to the line, Poles, who was an offensive lineman at Boston College, spoke strongly in January of fortifying the unit after watching the Kansas City Chiefs do it last year. Just how he does that remains to be seen.

“It’s important to me to get the line fixed,” Poles said then. “Just because I’ve played it, I feel like I’m a good evaluator of offensive linemen. It also helped that we did it in Kansas City last year. We felt like we got embarrassed in the Super Bowl. And we made the decision. We sat down and said, ‘We can’t let that happen again.’ And we went to work and found different ways.

“That’s a really good sample size in terms of we used free agency. We used trade. We used the draft. We used an emergency waiver-wire-type transaction to solidify the front. So we’re going to use all different areas to do that.”

2. Poles stressed the importance of assistant GM Ian Cunningham.

As Poles is handling all of the work that comes with being a new GM, he said Cunningham has played “a huge part” in helping him settle into the job.

“Getting pulled in so many different directions, that’s very new to me,” Poles said. “Having him out in front and working with our staff if I get pulled out of a meeting, he keeps the ball rolling, keeps a list of players that I need to get caught up on. All systems are always moving, and we don’t get stalled out for all of the things that are going on.”

Cunningham joined the Bears on Jan. 29 after 14 years with the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he rose to be director of player personnel.

Poles said in January that he was a big admirer of how the Ravens built their team under Ozzie Newsome, under whom Cunningham worked. And Poles liked that Cunningham’s move to the Eagles gave him a different type of experience on an analytics-focused staff under Howie Roseman.

“Bringing that in allows us to grow where we can pair all of our experiences together,” Poles said. “That’s going to be powerful. … Every general manager I’ve had gets pulled in so many different directions. We’ll be meeting. Something will pop up. ‘Hey, I’ve got to go talk to the owner.’ They pop out and everybody just sits there.

“So part of Ian’s job — and we talked about it — (is to) keep the ball rolling. Make the list of guys I missed. I’ll catch up on my own. But keep the process going so we’re not pausing.”

Roseman said this week that he already misses Cunningham and Brandon Brown, who left his post as co-director of player personnel to be the New York Giants assistant GM.

“Those guys are people that not only did we rely on professionally but personally,” Roseman said. “They’re just people I really enjoyed being around and are friends.

“It’s hard for me because you see these guys and they have an opportunity to help themselves and their families. But at the same time, it doesn’t really help the Eagles. Especially the timing of this, which I think it’s something maybe that we have to talk about going forward, about losing guys during this draft process, especially in your conference, one in your division. That’s not ideal.”

3. Poles said he was ‘very happy’ with the group of scouts he has.

Poles worked under three GMs with the Chiefs, so he has watched how different leaders approached making changes with the personnel staff and scouts they inherit, from adjusting grade scales and values to implementing new communication styles. He thinks he adapts well to such change.

But he wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting in the Bears holdovers.

He came away “pumped” about the group and its process.

“The meetings were incredible, and before we broke, I told them all how proud I was,” Poles said. “Because as a new GM you come in, you’re like, ‘All right, you’re evaluating them, you’re evaluating the evaluators.’ At the end of it, the thing that stood out to me is there’s a group of really, really good people that worked really hard this fall to gather the information.

“Now my style was a little bit different, our meeting structure was different. It was a culture of candor. It’s open. We have an order in the way we watch the tape. But after that everyone can speak their mind. If I see something different than you, then I bring it up to the room and we work through it. You can tell me where you saw it different and we’ll go find it. That group effort I think was refreshing to everyone.”

Bears coach Matt Eberflus said they built profile tapes of what they are looking for at each position.

“Then we went in with Ryan and the scouting staffs and we sat there for hours and talked about each position so everybody’s on the same page in terms of what we’re looking for in each position,” Eberflus said. “We did the same thing with free agency. We’re doing the same thing with the draft. It’s constantly working together to make sure we’re on the same page.”

4. Poles wouldn’t talk about whether running back Tarik Cohen is healthy.

Cohen last played a game on Sept. 27, 2020, when he tore the ACL in his right knee while playing against the Atlanta Falcons.

Former Bears GM Ryan Pace and former coach Matt Nagy often avoided addressing his recovery progress, and Poles followed suit.

“I don’t really want to get into the medical piece of individual players, but we’ll just take it a day at a time to figure out where he’s at,” Poles said.

Cohen’s prolonged absence raises questions about whether his place on the Bears is in danger.

“(Head athletic trainer) Andre Tucker’s one of the best in the league,” Poles said, “and we’re just going to have those conversations to see where everything stands and make the best decision we can make at that time.”

Last month, Cohen won the Bears’ Ed Block Courage Award, which is voted on by teammates and goes to a player who “displays professionalism, strength, dedication and is a community role model.”

In 51 games from 2017 until his injury, Cohen totaled 1,101 rushing yards and five touchdowns and 1,575 receiving yards and nine touchdowns and also was an All-Pro returner.