Bears Scheduling Second Interviews With Three Finalists For GM Job

According to Ian Rapoport, the Chicago Bears have identified Ryan Poles, Monti Ossenfort and Eliot Wolf as three finalists for their general manager vacancy.

Rapoport adds that Colts executive Morocco Brown could be added to this group at some point. 

Here’s the updated list of candidates for the Bears’ job:

• Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles (Finalist)
• Titans director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort (Finalist)
• Patriots executive consultant Eliot Wolf (Finalist)
• Browns VP of Player Personnel Glenn Cook (Interviewed)
• Browns VP of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Interviewed)
• Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds (Interviewed)
• Saints’ assistant GM Jeff Ireland (Interviewed)
• Bills assistant GM Joe Schoen (Interviewed)
• Bears assistant director of player personnel Champ Kelly (Interviewed)
• Dolphins senior personnel executive Reggie McKenzie (Interviewed)
• 49ers director of player personnel Ran Carthon (Interviewed)
• Colts director of college scouting Morocco Brown (Interviewed)
• Steelers VP Omar Khan (Interviewed)
• Chargers Director of Player Personnel JoJo Wooden (Requested)
• Former Texans GM Rick Smith

Ossenfort spent 14 years with the Patriots before joining the Titans as the director of player personnel in 2020. He got his start in New England as an area scout before moving up the ranks to national scout and assistant director of college scouting.

Ossenfort was promoted to the Titans college scouting director in 2016. 

Wolf, 39, is the son of former Packers GM Ron Wolf. He started off as a pro personnel assistant for the Packers in 2004 and worked his way up to director of football operations in 2016.

After the Packers hired Brian Gutekunst as their GM, Wolf departed for the assistant GM job under John Dorsey in Cleveland. He then worked for the Seahawks before joining the Patriots as a consultant.

Wolf has previously come up as a GM candidate in the past, and will apparently be given some consideration by the Bears.

Poles, 35, joined the Chiefs as a scouting assistant in 2009. He’s risen through the ranks, becoming the director of college scouting in 2017 and adding assistant director of player personnel to his title in 2018. 

He was also considered a finalist for the New York Giants general manager job, but they hired Joe Schoen on Friday. 

We will have more on the Bears search for a new GM as it becomes available.