Bears GM Ryan Poles anticipates ‘fairly quiet’ trade deadline amid uncertainty

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Plenty can change before the trade deadline Tuesday, but general manager Ryan Poles wasn’t planning a serious shakeup going into the Bears’ game at the Chargers on Sunday.

The Bears have two players in the final season of their rookie contracts, cornerback Jaylon Johnson and wide receiver Darnell Mooney, but Poles has spoken highly of both of them and is incentivized to keep them. The team also has been mentioned as a logical destination for Commanders defensive end Chase Young.

“As it sits right now, I think it’s going to be fairly quiet for us,” Poles said on ESPN 1000’s pre-game show. “But at the same we’re going to be opportunistic in taking information and seeing [whether] it works for our organization both short term and long term.”

Poles inherited four key players who would be up for extensions in his first two years on the job: linebacker Roquan Smith, who was in consideration last year, and 2020 picks Johnson, Mooney and tight end Cole Kmet. He traded Smith to the Ravens this time last year after making little headway on negotiations and signed Kmet to a four-year, $50 million extension in July.

Johnson has seemed like an obvious piece of the Bears’ future, and Poles said in the offseason he hoped “he’s a guy that we get to keep here for a while,” but Johnson has repeatedly expressed uncertainty about where he stands. He said last week he was making no assumption about whether the Bears would unload him.

“Everybody wants respect, but ... can the team and the player find common ground that makes sense all the way around?” Poles said of Johnson. “We want to retain homegrown talent. That’s important. But it takes two sides to make something happen.”

At the deadline last season, Poles traded Smith and traded a second-round pick to the Steelers for wide receiver Chase Claypool. He sent Claypool to the Dolphins for a late-round pick after just 10 games.