Salary cap space, No. 1 pick give Bears flexibility

The Bears have the following eight picks in the draft:

Round 1
Round 2 (from Ravens)
Round 3
Round 4
Round 4 (from Eagles)
Round 5
Round 5 (from Ravens)
Round 7

Although the Bears have more resources this offseason, Poles insists that his approach will remain the same as it was last year.

“We’re going to evaluate the players,” he said. “We’re going to put them in certain value buckets, and then we’re going to attack it and get as many good players in here as possible. I think you make a mistake if you say, ‘this is it.’ We’re going to approach it the same and be consistent so that we make sound decisions.”

Poles’ expectations for the offseason can be summed up in three words: “To get better.”

“We need to win more games,” Poles said. “Some of those tight games, I want to finish. I want to finish better. More playmakers is going to allow us to do that, so the expectation is to take that next step. I want to stair-step this thing to the top, and then stay up there as absolutely long as possible.

“I always go back to making sound decisions. Sometimes when you don’t make sound decisions, in the short term it can look really good. But then it’s what happens after, so we want to make decisions that can last a long time so we can stay at the top. We don’t have to peak and then [have] the drop off after.”