It’s a big offseason for the Bears and it’s all hands on deck. Fox 32’s Cassie Carlson caught up with Bears Assistant General Manager Ian Cunningham ahead of the NFL Combine where Cunningham and Bears GM Ryan Poles will begin evaluating NFL Draft talent.
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I guess it’s tough when you have that many prospects here but you know it’s not our first rodeo so uh we uh try to this is still the information gathering part of the process so we get to get to meet as many prospects as we can uh we
Have our 60 interviews that we do here we have some informals that our coaches are a part of so it’s a part of just Gathering as much information as we can right now Ryan PS is really stressed figuring out the human being when it comes to all these draft prospects you
Get those 15 minutes to sit down with them face to face what kind of questions do you ask them to try to glean as much information initially yeah it’s tough to do in 15 minutes as we as we both know but I think one of the first things that
We do is our Scouts come in and they’ll ask a couple questions just to follow up some information that we may not have gotten at the school um or All-Star games and then our coaches really take the rein from there and uh try to get to
Know them um on a personal level how they would teach in the classroom um their coaching style uh to see about their football intelligence uh their aptitude those sorts of things and then if we have extra questions or need to follow up on some things we’ll uh bring
Them into Chicago I know last year what did you guys have them do darts or putting to kind of lose do same same yeah we’re creatures to have it so we’re doing the same thing and you found that that really kind of allowed them to open
Up it does it it really is an ice breaker for all of us um the room is is packed so as you can imagine being a 20 to 23 year old you’re walking into a room fulled of uh a lot of people you want an icebreaker to start it off and
Uh flu doeses a really good job with the putting so those guys love it well you guys do have the number one overall pick and everyone of course wants to know what you’re going to do with that this is a huge quarterback draft class what’s your analysis of that position as a
Whole yeah it’s a really good class um we’re still like I said we’re in the information part of Gathering part of the process right now um we’re going to get a chance to meet some of those guys here get a chance to see some of those guys throw here um so we’re looking
Forward to just this part of the process right now Justin field said last week that of course he wants to stay in Chicago but he also wants this entire process to be done in over with when it comes to his position personally are you able to keep him in the loop like you
Were last year as you go through this entire process yeah I think that’s the conversation for for Ryan and and Justin but as much as we can we we’re as transparent as possible you know um we’re still just trying to gather as much information as we can here um
Evaluate the prospects and um you know Justin is who he is man he’s uh you know being able to be here with him the last two years has been cool to be able to see his growth um on and off the field how much does free agency and the timing
Of that dictate the timeline of the pick and what decision you guys decide to make yeah I think uh the good thing is it’s it’s the same uh same time of year every single year so we kind of know that going into it um but I think we’re
Going to continue to make as as many decisions as we can be diligent in our process and uh we’ll see what we do in in a couple weeks there’s a lot of people that say how in the world do you go backtack years holding that number
One overall pick and how do you deal with the stress of knowing just that the weight that comes with that pick how do you guys simplify that so you know that what decision you’re making is is the right decision yeah um luckily enough we
Were here last year right uh so we had a a chance to to see that through U I feel like we made some really good decisions then um similar process here just in terms of trying to make the best decisions for us for our team now and
And moving forward over the past three years in your other staffs what have you found being the most important thing as you go through this entire process is it keeping what you believe in your heart of hearts to be the right thing or do you have to be flexible you do have to
Be flexible you know like this part in terms of uh the combine in and of itself is really to gather as much information as you can from a medical perspective uh from a people perspective obviously the the testing and the metrics on the field
Are good but uh this is a you know our coach’s first time in front of these players sometimes it’s our first time in front of these players as well so um really excited about this week and and can’t wait to get it going do like everyone’s trying to hunt you guys down
And talk to you yeah yeah but I think that’s just because of who we are we’re just good people of course thanks I appreciate itks
