Getty Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
New details have emerged about how far the Chicago Bears went to secure star pass rusher Matthew Judon in a trade and why they bowed out of contention.
In the third episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears” on August 20, the Bears offered a behind-the-scenes look at how general manager Ryan Poles and his staff approached the prospect of trading for the 32-year-old Judon.
Poles discussed the possibility of trading for Judon with Bears president Kevin Warren, going over the pros and cons and stating he believes Judon “would help us get better.” He also mostly dismissed concerns about Judon’s season-ending biceps, saying he did not believe it would diminish the four-time Pro Bowler’s “intensity” or “explosion.”
Ultimately, the episode confirmed the Bears did offer a third-round pick to the New England Patriots for Judon — which is the compensation they accepted from the Atlanta Falcons in the end. More importantly, though, it also revealed Poles made a stipulation that if Judon did not agree to a contract extension with the Bears, they would not deal.
“Our [trade] language is basically saying if the contract’s not signed, then he reverts back to New England,” Poles said in the episode during a conversation with Ted Crews, special advisor to President/CEO and chief administration officer.
Ryan Poles Tried to Avoid Risk With Matthew Judon
Poles is not afraid to work the phones and make trades he believes can help the Bears.
Since becoming general manager in January 2022, Poles has acquired eight different veteran players through trades, including wide receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen and defensive end Montez Sweat. He has also traded away five veterans, such as middle linebacker Roquan Smith and former first-round quarterback Justin Fields.
The trick is finding trades that fit the Bears’ needs for the short term and long term. Sometimes that means adding players with multiple years left on their contracts. Other times, it means working quickly to sign their newly acquired player to a new contract.
The latter happened with Sweat. The Bears traded a second-round pick to Washington to land Sweat at the 2023 NFL trade deadline, which immediately riled the national media. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler even accused the Bears of being “shortsighted” for not laying the groundwork for a new contract with a player due to become a free agent.
Four days later, the Bears signed Sweat to a four-year, $98 million contract extension and all the noise vanished. That’s just the intentionality in which Poles does business.
“We try to do a really good job creating parameters that make sense for our club and that put our club in a position to be successful now but also down the road,” Poles said regarding Judon during August 20’s episode of “Hard Knocks.”
“I don’t want to get the club stuck in a position where we have a player that’s here, we’ve given up a draft pick and we haven’t had a resolution on a contract.”
Austin Booker Helps Mitigate Matthew Judon Miss
Judon could have been an impact player for the Bears. While his biceps injury limited him to four games in 2023, he had recorded 18 sacks and 120 tackles combined in his previous two seasons for the Patriots. He and Sweat could have wreaked havoc as pass rushers on opposite sides of the Bears’ defensive line during the 2024 season.
Missing out on Judon also weighs on Poles, even if he recognizes they did not pull the trigger on the trade due to the parameters they put in place to safeguard the team.
“I’m tormenting myself, but if you have your own guardrails that we put up to help us stay in the lane, we surely pressed up against them to acquire the player,” Poles said. “But when it comes to losing all flexibility, I don’t think that would be smart even if he has success. Now if he has 20 sacks or something, yeah, it would make me sick.”
Bears director of football administration Matt Feinstein raised a good point to Poles that helped quell his concerns during the episode, though. They would have given up a third-rounder and “significant financials” to acquire Judon, but they only needed to give up a fourth-rounder for “four years of Austin Booker.”
During the 2024 NFL draft, the Bears traded their 2025 fourth-round pick to Buffalo to move back into the fifth round and select Booker, a pass rusher out of Kansas. While the rookie has a ways to go before reaching Judon’s elite caliber of play, he has shined throughout the preseason and could become an impact player before the end of 2024.
While Judon could have benefitted the Bears now, they can at least relax some knowing they have both Sweat and Booker under contract through the 2027 season.
