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PHOENIX — Ryan Poles spent most of his first year as Bears general manager cleaning up the mess left behind by his predecessor, Ryan Pace. Poles kept it classy and avoided any blatant finger-pointing publicly. He didn’t need to say it anyway. Everybody knew.
But now the Bears are fully his. He had his chance to clear out players and contracts that didn’t fit his plans, and anyone who’s still with the team is there by design.
That includes Justin Fields.
Poles didn’t draft Fields, and there’s no telling whether he would have if he’d gotten the job a year earlier.