Ryan Poles (born September 20, 1985) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

executive and former

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

who is the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Poles previously served as the executive director of player personnel for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

and has served in various executive roles with the Chiefs for 13 seasons.

Early years

A native of

Canandaigua, New York Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora language, Tuscarora) is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrat ...

, Poles attended

Canandaigua Academy Canandaigua Academy is a high school (grades 9-12) in Canandaigua, New York, United States. It is part of the Canandaigua City School District. The school was named a national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education ...

before playing

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

as an

from 2003 to 2007. Poles signed as an undrafted free agent with the

in 2008, but he didn't make it on the 53-man roster and was cut.

Executive career

Boston College

In 2008, following the end of his playing career, Poles returned to his alma mater

as a graduate assistant and was involved in recruiting.

Kansas City Chiefs

In 2009, Poles was hired by the

as a scouting assistant under general manager

Scott Pioli Scott Pioli (born March 31, 1965) is an American football executive who most recently worked as the Assistant General Manager for the Atlanta Falcons. He was an NFL analyst for NBC Sports' ''Football Night in America'', NBC Sports Network's Pro ...

. In 2010, he was promoted to college scouting coordinator. In 2013, Poles was retained under new general manager John Dorsey. In 2016, Poles was promoted to director of college scouting. Poles was retained and promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2018 under new general manager

Brett Veach Brett Veach (born December 19, 1977) is an American football executive who is the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Prior to being the Chiefs general manager, he was the Chiefs' co-director of player ...

. On June 9, 2021, Poles was promoted to executive director of player personnel.

Chicago Bears

On January 25, 2022, Poles was named the general manager of the

, replacing

Ryan Pace Ryan Pace (born February 17, 1977) is an American sports executive in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the general manager of the Chicago Bears from 2015 to 2021. Before that, he worked in the New Orleans Saints' front office for ...

. Poles' first significant move with the Bears was trading linebacker

Khalil Mack Khalil Delshon Mack (; born February 22, 1991) is an American football outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Buffalo, and was drafted by the Oakland Raiders with the ...

to the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

for a second round pick in the

2022 NFL Draft The 2022 NFL Draft was the 87th edition of the National Football League's annual draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The first round was held on Thursday, April 28, and w ...

and a sixth round pick in

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

Personal life

Poles is married to his wife, Katie, and they have two children together. Poles graduated from

with a degree in communications in 2007.

References

External links

Chicago Bears profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poles, Ryan 1985 births Living people American football offensive linemen Boston College Eagles football players Chicago Bears executives Chicago Bears players Kansas City Chiefs executives Kansas City Chiefs scouts National Football League general managers People from Canandaigua, New York Players of American football from New York (state) All Wikipedia articles written in American English All stub articles