It's arguably the quietest time of the year for the Minnesota Vikings and the rest of the NFL, but the Chicago Bears decided to give everyone a good laugh on Friday when they reportedly gave an extension to general manager Ryan Poles, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
With the reported extension, Poles is now under contract with the Bears until the 2030 offseason. This doesn't mean that Chicago has to keep him around until then, but they will now owe him money until 2030 if they fire him before his contract expires.
Poles is the third general manager in the NFC North to receive a contract extension this offseason, as the Vikings extended Kwesi Adofo-Mensah this past May, and the Detroit Lions gave Brad Holmes an extension in March.
Minnesota Vikings have every reason to be thankful Ryan Poles passed on them for the Chicago Bears
Back during the 2022 offseason, Poles was actually one of the finalists to become Minnesota's next general manager. But before he even had his final interview with the Vikings, he decided to accept the Bears' offer to become their new general manager instead.
That choice ultimately resulted in Minnesota hiring Adofo-Mensah as their new general manager, and since these two were hired, it's not hard to figure out which one has done a better job (spoiler alert: it's not Poles).
With Poles running the front office since 2022, Chicago has failed to make the playoffs every season, and the franchise has a combined record of 15-36.
Things have gone much more positively for the Vikings with Adofo-Mensah as their general manager, as the team has gone to the playoffs twice and won 67 percent of their games (34-17).
Aside from the Bears' lack of success during Poles' tenure, the team's decision to extend him is even more puzzling when one realizes that he still had two years remaining on his original contract with the organization.
Why not wait and let one more season go by to see if Chicago can actually turn things around before extending a guy who has done pretty much nothing to deserve the extension he got on Friday?
It seems like the Bears rewarded Poles for hiring Ben Johnson to be the team's new head coach earlier this year. Many view it as a great hire for Chicago, but Johnson has never been a head coach before, and given the franchise's string of bad luck during the last decade, it's far from a guarantee that he will do well in a new role where he's in charge of an entire locker room.
So, good luck to the Bears. But not really, since it's going to be a whole lot more enjoyable if Chicago continues to struggle with Poles as its general manager while Minnesota keeps enjoying success with Adofo-Mensah calling the shots in the front office.
