Bears’ draft indicates Ben Johnson-Ryan Poles problem could be brewing

The Chicago Bears put together a rather intriguing NFL Draft class last month, and I mean “intriguing” in every sense of the word.

Yes, the Bears landed some really good players, bagging safety Dillon Thieneman with their first-round pick and then circling back around to nab center Logan Jones in Round 2. The latter marked the beginning of three straight offensive selections for Chicago on Day 2, which was controversial, to say the least.

The Bears entered the draft with a very clear need at edge rusher, but they didn’t select one. They also needed a defensive tackle, but they chose to wait until the sixth round to finally take an interior defender, selecting Jordan van den Berg out of Georgia Tech.

Ben Johnson is an offensive-minded coach, so perhaps it should not come as too much of a surprise that Chicago spent a whole lot of time on that side of the ball in the draft. That included reaching on wide receiver Zavion Thomas in the third round.

But could the Bears’ draft class indicate a potential issue between Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles? Vincent Parise of Bears Wire thinks so.

Do the Chicago Bears have a Ben Johnson-Ryan Poles power struggle?

Both Johnson and Poles have shown they know what they are doing when it comes to making football decisions. Johnson did a terrific job in his first year as Bears coach, leading Chicago to an NFC North title and its first playoff win in 15 years. Poles has done a tremendous job of rebuilding the roster.

But when it came to the 2026 NFL Draft, Parise thinks Johnson had much more pull than Poles.

“All this draft did was confirm that head coach Ben Johnson has a louder voice in the organization than general manager Ryan Poles,” Parise wrote. “It was speculated that this was the case anyway, but this draft all but confirmed it.”

While Parise doesn’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, there is no doubt that this could potentially cause some problems moving forward.

Poles was the GM before Johnson was head coach. In fact, Poles made it a point to hire Johnson. This isn’t like the John Harbaugh-Joe Schoen situation in New York.

Obviously, because Johnson is the coach, he wants to make sure he has the right players, but it isn’t a good thing if he ends up completely usurping Poles’ power. Right now, everything is fine and dandy in the Windy City. But if things start going south, the Johnson-Poles situation could come to a head.

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