After offseason heavy lifting, Bears GM Ryan Poles monitoring edge rusher market

After trading Khalil Mack two years ago, general manager Ryan Poles flinched when he was asked whether the Bears were rebuilding. Poles instead compared his task to home improvement shows he watched on television with his wife. Some rooms needed renovation, he said, and others merely a new coat of paint.

After spending the offseason constructing the most talented Bears team in at least five years, it’s time for Poles to worry about the paint.

When the Bears hold their first practice Saturday, there will be two starting positions in question: center and the defensive end spot opposite Montez Sweat. The center job will come down to either Ryan Bates, for whom Poles traded, or free agent addition Coleman Shelton. The most likely player to rush opposite Sweat on a Week 1 third-down pass, though, might not yet be on the team.

Poles acknowledged as much Friday when he brought up defensive end unprompted. After saying he was excited to see his coaching staff work with the players they have, he admitted they’d been looking around.

“We will always have our eyes on the list of players that we could potentially bring in,” he said.

The list is short. Emmanuel Ogbah, the 30-year-old who had 5½ sacks for the Dolphins last year, is the biggest name still available. The cleanest free-agent fit, though, is Yannick Ngakoue, who had four sacks for the Bears last year before breaking his ankle in December. Two of Ngakoue's four sacks came in the five games he played alongside Sweat. It marked the first time in Ngakoue’s eight-year career that he finished with fewer than eight sacks.

The Bears have been monitoring Ngakoue's recovery; their training staff was involved in his physical therapy before he left to do it elsewhere.

“I think once we got Montez, you saw the sack rate go up for really everybody,” Poles said. “So I think it enhanced everyone. But I really enjoyed our time with [Ngakoue]. I thought he did a nice job. Brought some leadership. So it was positive.”

DeMarcus Walker is set to be the Bears’ starting defensive end, but the team would like to move him inside to tackle on passing downs. They won’t be able to do so without either developing an edge rusher in camp — fifth-round draft pick Austin Booker played only 505 snaps in college — or signing one before Week 1.

“We saw some really encouraging things during OTAs,” Poles said of the team’s in-house options. “But we all know this game is played in full pads, so we want to see that process through.”

The Bears hold their first padded practice July 27.

That Poles can focus on working the edges — literally and figuratively — speaks to the large-scale renovation he’s pulled off to this point. Two years removed from going 3-14, the Bears can talk about big dreams with a straight face.

“Our goal is always to win the Super Bowl and take the division, and I feel like we’re continuing to get closer and closer to that,” Poles said. “So I’m excited to find out what that ceiling is.”

Since March, Poles has traded for receiver Keenan Allen and Bates; signed running back D’Andre Swift, safety Kevin Byard and tight end Gerald Everett; re-signed cornerback Jaylon Johnson; and, most importantly, drafted quarterback Caleb Williams first and receiver Rome Odunze ninth.

“I mean, all you can be is excited ...” Williams said. “We have great vets. Obviously we have some good young guys, Rome and a bunch of other guys — whether they were undrafted or drafted. And then we got some guys from other teams that are vets and have been in the league. So the talent and all that can only go so far as everybody always says.

"We've got to work together, build a bond, build a trust between each other and go get it.”

There might be one last player left for Poles to go get, too.