It's all going to come down to whether Poles (and in as much as Ben Johnson's influence on personnel) has improved and learned from previous lessons. Poles has struggled mightily in choosing the right free agents to bring in. Going back to the the attempted Larry Ogunjobi signing that was scuttled with medical concerns, the linebacker double down with Edmunds and Edwards while seeing Roquan out, the worst was probably Claypool but then the Oline attempts with Bates, Patrick, etc. I do think Poles took more sure things this year and 2025 may go down as the year the Bears front office finally does the obvious things in front of their face (sign the obvious leading HC candidate in BJ, pick up some obvious upgrades with hopefully some upside for the IOL, etc.) but most of these pieces have to play out well. If that happens, the rest of the NFC North should at least be paying attention as the Bears have made the most obvious steps at improvements amongst the division.
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