Now Seems Like a Good Time to Remind Bears GM Ryan Poles He Reportedly Laughed at Drake Maye's College Tape Like a 'Bully'

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With the Patriots heading to Chicago for Thursday Night Football, the dominant story line is of course going to be the first meeting between Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. Both guys have been asked about the showdown, and showed the mutual respect that often develops between two guys who went through the same draft process together:

Both teams are 4-2. The quarterbacks are each on a bit of a roll, as Williams came back from his hammy pull to complete 83.3% of his throws and post a 111.2 passer rating. And Maye has 10 touchdowns and one interception in his last three games, all of the wins. 

So for sure, this looks for all the world like it will be one of those matchups we'll be remembering for years. The two leaders of the next great generation of QBs going head-to-head. Like the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning games that began in 2001 and lasted a decade and a half. Or what Josh Allen-Patrick Mahomes games have been for the past 10 years. But with the added bonus of these guys coming from the celebrated QB Class of 2024. 

Which brings us at last to the reason why I called this meeting. To remind you all what Bears GM Ryan Poles thought about Maye while he was scouting that draft class. How he managed to look at Maye's UNC game film:

… and not see an impressive display of athleticism, a strong, accurate arm and a high football IQ like most of us did. Instead he acted like he was watching "The Nightman Cometh" episode of It's Always Sunny.:

ChiCitySports - [A] piece from Go Long founder Ty Dunne has revealed some potential shocking revelations within the Bears organization including Caleb Williams and Ryan Poles. …

Dunne dives into Poles and his tenure so far, speaking on the 2024 NFL Draft. 

The piece features some interesting information about scouting quarterbacks other than Williams and it’s revealed that Poles wasn’t a fan of former North Carolina Tar Heels’ quarterback Drake Maye. Here’s part of the story where it shows just how much Poles didn’t like Maye:

Clicker in hand, at the center of the room, Ryan Poles repeatedly hit rewind on errant passes and it didn’t take long for those echoes of “Geez!” to turn into outright laughter. Poles and his confidants were not interested in sparking a substantive conversation about the North Carolina quarterback. This draft meeting resembled a bully in the high school cafeteria seeking toadies — any veneer of scouting objectivity was shed.

Maye escaped free runners, threw at awkward angles, sailed incompletions. At times, the spiral of his ball was off. Other times, the receiver broke in and the ball was thrown out. All funky plays were magnified and mocked to make it appear as if this is exactly who he’d become as a pro quarterback.

Poles chimed in. “This tape makes my chest tight,” one source recalls the GM saying.

All but a select few scouts broke out in laughter.

Yeesh.

Yeesh, indeed. I mean, no draft prospect gets A-grades from 100% of the experts. Even the most generational talents have somebody taking the contrarian view. I still remember the famous 1998 draft, when the debate that sounds so ludicrous now, was about whether the Colts should take Manning or Ryan Leaf at No. 1. And one draft guru whose name I forget began questioning the way Manning gripped the ball. He'd started 45 games at Tennessee, completed 62% of his almost 1,400 attempts for over 11,000 yards. But one galaxy brain decided he didn't know the proper way to hold the ball. So yes, there'll always be critics. Nobody is liked by everybody. 

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But holy moly, if you're going to be this wrong about a prospect who's playing as well as Maye has through his first 38 games, you're automatically disqualified from ever having an opinion on college talent. 

I'm being dead serious. Being this wrong about Drake Maye is like being the film critic who gave a negative review to GoodFellas. You've lost all your credibility, and there's no reason  to trust your opinion on any movie ever again. If I was running an NFL Draft website, and one of my writers got the No. 3 pick as wrong as Poles got Maye, I'm deleting all his posts and blocking his access to the site so we don't start bleeding subscribers. 

For sure, being so dead wrong about such an important pick at a crucial position disqualifies you from ever running an NFL scouting meeting. And means you belong nowhere near a War Room on Draft Day. 

I mean, this wasn't just questioning Maye's footwork like plenty of scouts were. Or picking apart his decision making. This was Poles going around the room whipping up anti-Maye sentiment. Intimidating his underlings into agreeing with him that they were seeing film of the next … well, Ryan Leaf. He went full Biff Tannen on his staff. And everyone was entitled to Poles' opinion. 

Bear in mind that the Tar Heels quarterback he found so hilarious that his sides were splitting and his chest was tight was 20 or 21 in that film. And by the age of 23, missed out on being the league MVP by one vote and led his team to the Super Bowl. But based on Poles' assessment, if the Bears had been sitting on the No. 3 pick instead of the No. 1, he'd have taken Michael Penix or Marvin Harrison Jr., or traded out of the spot. And missed out on a generational talent. Which is ironic, given that Maye's numbers are practically identical to the guy he was lucky enough to be in position to select:

Here's hoping Ryan Poles' chest will be tight Thursday Night. But not from laughing. 

Giphy Images.

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