Bears GM Ryan Poles discusses constructing 53-man roster, waiver process & more

You made seven waiver claims after final cuts, the most of any NFL team. What was the process that led to those moves?

RP: “This process was introduced to me back to Kansas City by John Dorsey, and it’s really kind of like a Ron Wolf philosophical thing. What we do is we start in the beginning of training camp, and once the preseason games get started, different scouts are assigned to different teams and you almost become the GM of that team. You’re going to go ahead and look at the 53 and what guys are on the bubble, cap casualties, all those different things. You watch it through preseason and then what starts to happen is some of the guys start to pop. Are they going to make it? Are they going to keep six linebackers or five? What about four safeties or five? OK, well, they’re loaded at this one position. They might have to waive a guy who’s really talented but they really want him on the practice squad. So we just attack the tape. It’s three weeks. We flash the guys who make plays, and we see who shakes free and then we ask ourselves, ‘Does this player fit what we want and can he help the Chicago Bears?’ That’s how we do it. It’s a long process, especially once that 15-page waiver report comes out. [After final cuts] we went to about midnight, 1 o’clock watching tape and getting organized for that.”