Ryan Poles on the Senior Bowl: ‘It’s real valuable for us’

The 2023 Senior Bowl is almost in the books. The most important part — the three days of practice — is over. Only the game remains, but as any experienced Senior Bowl veteran will tell you, most of the NFL’s scouts have already left Mobile, Alabama.

“It’s real valuable for us,” Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles said this week of the Senior Bowl experience. “You can’t get around the country to see everyone throughout the fall, so being able to get up close and see how they move, see how they lead, communicate, those are all big pieces of the puzzle that we’ve got to answer.”

The Bears really took advantage of getting those answers at the 2023 Senior Bowl, where offensive coordinator Luke Getsy served as the head coach of the American Team. Even Getsy said his primary objective at the Senior Bowl was to make the Bears” 2023 NFL Draft class a better one.

Senior Bowl gives Bears a unique and deeper look at 2023 NFL Draft prospects

Senior Bowl practices give general managers and scouts a unique opportunity to watch players compete against each other who, depending on what college they attended or level of play they participated in, wouldn’t otherwise happen.

“You get the opportunity to see someone who might have gone to a small school go against a power five school [prospect], and that’s important for our evaluation as well,” Poles said.

Players like Princeton wide receiver Andrei Iosivas fall into that bucket. The Ivy League standout matched up against top FBS cornerbacks in one-on-ones and team sessions, and while it wasn’t a great week for the tall and athletic pass-catcher, he looked like he belonged.

The biggest Senior Bowl benefit for NFL teams is and always will be their ability to get to know more about the person each prospect is. Unlocking what makes a player tick, what drives them, and what kind of worker they are, is often the difference between drafting a bust and a long-term starter.

“Throughout the fall, as we gather information, there are going to be some holes in the story of certain things that we’re looking for,” Poles said. “It’s an opportunity for us to ask them about that and really kind of tie all the loose ends on what they stand for as a person as well as a football player.”

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