5 Chicago Bears Takeaways from the Week 3 loss vs. the Chiefs

2. Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles may have been crowned too soon

I do not believe that Ryan Poles is a terrible General Manager as some do (yet), but the man who was dubbed by some as “King Poles” may have been crowned too soon.

Let’s get his positives out of the way before we hold him accountable. His predecessor treated the cap and draft capital like they didn’t matter, something I’ve liked very much so far about Poles. In just one year, Ryan Poles flipped a terrible cap situation into a great one while amassing more draft capital than the Chicago Bears have had for a long time.

With that being said, he’s responsible for the product on the field. As we know, that product has been horrendous. The coaching staff he hired and the roster he assembled are not cutting it.

While my criticisms of the coaching staff can be found in these takeaways, it’s the trenches that are the biggest issue. The Chicago Bears entered the offseason with more than $100M in cap space, the most in the NFL. One year after having one of the worst groups of defensive and offensive linemen in the NFL, the situation has not improved.

Our defensive line continues to get blown off the ball. They’re unable to beat the offensive line on a consistent basis, and despite the addition of Yannick Ngakoue, they are unable to generate any pressure. For the second consecutive game, the Chicago Bears defense registered zero sacks. We offer no resistance to the run game, no matter who we play. We are football matadors.

The offensive line isn’t much better. We should expect Darnell Wright to struggle, but it’s worrisome how often he’s getting badly beaten on a weekly basis. Whatever highlights you can find of him have to be sought after because they aren’t obvious. I hope Nate Davis is doing okay mentally, but he’s been a huge disappointment thus far.

Ryan Poles can go on and on about finding value in contracts he gives, but if your team is poor, questions will justifiably be asked. He could’ve poured many more resources into the trenches. His big signings have made little impact. Tremaine Edmunds racks up tackles, but is he making game-changing plays? Maybe he would be if his defensive line wasn’t getting annihilated.

Poles is much more likely than anyone else to remain after this season, but he better start figuring it out if he wants to have the kind of sustained success he’s talked about in interviews. However, the players still have to play, which leads me to my next point.

3. The entire Chicago Bears roster should be ashamed of themselves

I’m going to get to Justin Fields, but the entire roster should be putting paper bags on their faces when they walk around the great city of Chicago. Do they have no pride?

After an entire week of insane adversity, this group was supposed to be ready to prove everyone wrong and play inspired football. Instead, what we got was a group of individuals devoid of leadership both on the staff and on the field.

Let’s start with the “defense.” Don’t let the meaningless second-half interceptions fool you. The fact that Blaine Gabbert, Kansas City Chiefs backup QB, was in the game at all to throw those interceptions shows you how bad the Chicago Bears are.

The Chiefs did whatever they wanted. The Bears let Matt Nagy, someone vilified in Chicago and ran out of town, absolutely embarrass them in just two quarters. The Chicago Bears were down 34-0 at halftime. Did anyone play angry? Did any one player make a big play when it mattered? Absolutely not, because they’re all softer than Charmin.

This has never been more apparent than today. Jaquan Brisker, perhaps the most injury-prone player I’ve watched in a Bears uniform this side of Teven Jenkins and ex-player Chris Williams, had the gall to ask Bears fans not to boo them despite their appalling play. Maybe if you made more plays and liked fewer tweets to “keep receipts,” we’d boo you less, Jaquan.

Seriously, who taught this team how to tackle? Did any of these players play prior to their time on the Chicago Bears this season? They all look like they’ve never tackled in their life. They miss every open-field tackle. They’re dreadful.

The offense, on the other hand, was a bunch of mindless zombies lining up and going through the motions. After another Kansas City touchdown, the Bears received a kickoff and somehow managed to line up wrong and draw a Delay of Game penalty. This level of ineptitude is hard to reach at the professional level, but here we are.

The Chicago Bears can’t do anything they want. The opponent dictates the entire game. I’d argue last year’s Bears team was better and had more fights, which is mind-boggling considering we were 3-14. The Arizona Cardinals proved by beating the Dallas Cowboys this week that talent isn’t everything. When you have no heart or soul like the Bears, you’re finished.

Through three weeks, we are easily the worst team in the NFL. In fact, we’re 3 points underdogs next week to a team that gave up 70 points and lost by 50 this week. Somehow, that feels generous. Still, nothing hurts more than the next takeaways about Justin Fields…