Nearly two years later, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles landed his guy, agreeing to trade a 2024 fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills for offensive lineman Ryan Bates on Monday night.
Bates could be in line to be the starting center in 2024. The trade will be official at the start of the league year on March 13, pending a physical.
In March 2022, Poles’ first months on the job, he made the aggressive move to sign Bates — then a restricted free agent — to an offer sheet.
The Bills matched, and Bates re-signed with Buffalo. Poles was about to speak with reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings when the news broke.
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“I just found that out,” Poles said that day. “It stinks. But that’s part of the RFA process. So we’ll adjust and we’ll keep adding players. It’s out of your control. It’s just part of the deal where you put your best foot forward and we did. … We’ll adjust like everything else.”
Poles and his staff were clearly surprised the Bills matched the offer sheet and re-signed Bates, who went on to start 15 games in 2022 — mostly at right guard, while also filling in at center.
He’s played all five positions but is best suited on the interior. Poles prefers athletic offensive linemen, and Bates’ combine stats from 2019 are on par.
From @MathBomb, Ryan Bates came out of college with the athleticism the Bears seek up front pic.twitter.com/MB7LiYXBN1
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) March 5, 2024
The Bears have an opening for a starter at center. They cut veteran Cody Whitehair, and Lucas Patrick is set to be a free agent. Considering the price — a fifth-round pick — Bates should get the first crack at the job, but that compensation also doesn’t preclude Poles from adding competition via free agency or the draft.
If that turns out to be the case, Bates would still offer value as the top reserve on the interior, which is another hole on the roster. Bates has two years left on the four-year deal he signed in 2022. His cap hit is $5.439 million in each of the next two seasons, per Spotrac.
With the No. 1 pick in the draft, the Bears are in position to draft rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. If they go that route, they might prefer to pair Williams up with a veteran like Bates, who has played in 73 games with 19 starts for a team that made the postseason in all five of Bates’ NFL seasons.
The Bears now have only five picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, and none after Round 4.
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(Photo: Jamie Sabau / USA Today)
