Bears GM Ryan Poles credits Ben Johnson with seeing 'big picture' as they navigated trade deadline

Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune on Nov 5, 2025

Published in Football

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CHICAGO — Ryan Poles was mostly an onlooker Tuesday as some seismic deals highlighted NFL trade-deadline day.

The Chicago Bears general manager has been at the apex of major in-season and offseason deals, but Poles made a more modest move this time, trading a sixth-round draft pick to the Cleveland Browns for defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and a seventh-rounder.

Tryon-Shoyinka is expected to play Sunday against the New York Giants at Soldier Field, and exactly how he figures into the rotation will be determined after a week of practice. The Bears needed to do something with only three healthy defensive ends: Montez Sweat, Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy.

The Browns rarely used Tryon-Shoyinka on defense this season, but the Bears leaned on their evaluation of him coming out of college at Washington and tape from his four seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — including a 2023 game against the Bears at Raymond James Stadium in which he had two sacks and three quarterback hits.

“There was a lot of traits to help us both in the run game and the pass game,” Poles said. “Loved the effort and the motor, the range that he has. Very similar style, a few more traits than Dom (Robinson), but a similar style. Reliable, dependable.”

An ankle injury has Robinson on the sideline, and that combined with the season-ending losses of starter Dayo Odeyingbo (torn Achilles tendon) and rookie Shemar Turner (torn ACL) put the Bears in a bind. Poles said he made calls across the league on nearly every player he could potentially imagine being available via trade.

“You get different answers,” Poles said. “Sometimes they change if you start three weeks prior (to the deadline). As you get closer, things come up and (go) down based on how teams are doing and how they feel about the player. We turned (over) pretty much every stone to find those answers.”

The return of Booker from an MCL sprain in his right knee, suffered in the preseason, helped the Bears feel a little more confident a role player like Tryon-Shoyinka could help them through this phase. Booker had a sack and forced fumble in Sunday’s 47-42 victory in Cincinnati, his first game back from injured reserve, dominating left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. with a long arm move.

“It reminded us back to the momentum he had going in the preseason,” Poles said. “You saw those flashes and we expect those to continue to come.”

Ultimately, the Bears decided it was best to stay away from a blockbuster move and maintain their higher draft picks. They currently own seven picks in 2026: one in each of the first five rounds and two in Round 7.

Poles said he had multiple meetings with first-year coach Ben Johnson over the previous few weeks, assessing where the team was, what moves were worth exploring and how every scenario would fit in the big picture.

“That was part of our conversation when we talked about how we want to build this team,” Poles said. “That’s through the draft. I’ll tell you what, this staff — I’m sure you all see it — the development of some of these players, whether it’s Booker or if it’s (linebacker) Noah Sewell, those guys have continued to get better.

“I think they’ve closed a pretty big gap with this new staff. So that gets me even more excited and gets Ben excited to watch our coaches work with these young players that we draft, that are young now, that we draft in the future to have a big role on our team.”

With the Bears (5-3) in the thick of a tight NFC North race with the Green Bay Packers (5-2-1), Detroit Lions (5-3) and Minnesota Vikings (4-4), Poles was struck by how naturally Johnson took a holistic view of the situation.

“A lot of times you get into these moments and you get tunnel vision about right now: What do I need to do?” Poles said. “His ability to see short term and long term for us to be able to have those conversations is, as a front-office person, really awesome to have.

“Not only him but also (defensive coordinator) Dennis Allen, too, who has been in that (head coaching) chair, to see the big picture and how we want to build this football team. They have a really good understanding of it, which is good.”

So when Tuesday’s deadline passed, the Bears had a veteran edge defender with experience and some production while headlines were being made in Indianapolis, Dallas and New York. The Jets traded a pair of former first-round picks in cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, setting themselves up for a total overhaul.

“I didn’t see some of them coming,” Poles said. “There were some stunned moments there, but nothing surprises me.

“Teams do what they need to do and what they think they need to do in certain windows. They’re willing to give up a lot more. We get to see how it plays out and how it impacts their football team, short and long (term).”