Chicago Sports

There’s a new sheriff in town — and his name is Ryan Poles.

A stranger in these parts who was barely settled in after being hired in January to clean up Halas Hall, the Bears’ rookie general manager faced an early, tense, public showdown with star linebacker Roquan Smith in a contract dispute.

Smith was a formidable foe — a two-time All-Pro linebacker with credentials, a reputation and most of the townspeople on his side. A lot of eyes, not only in Chicago but throughout the NFL, were on Poles to see how he could handle this high-profile test of his GM capabilities.

As it turned out, Poles didn’t blink. With Roquan still on his rookie contract, Poles had all the leverage and knew how to use it. Poles held his ground and Smith, after missing the first 25 days of training camp, including 15 practices and two preseason games, did all he could do –back down and live to fight another day.

It’s very likely that Roquan’s day will come. But for now, Poles is the big winner, establishing himself as a general manager who — right or wrong — has definite ideas about the discipline it takes to do this job and is going to do it his way.

With plenty of salary-cap space, making his best player happy might have been an easy move to make for a first-year general manager who didn’t need the headache of a contract holdout. Instead, Poles set a tone that surely won’t go unnoticed at Halas Hall — with wide receiver Darnell Mooney, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, running back David Montgomery, tight end Cole Kmet and quarterback Justin Fields surely paying attention.

If we’ve learned anything about Poles so far, it’s that he is more unflappable than he is green and is very willing to go his own way. With the Bears in dire need of an offense — any offense — he hired a defensive coordinator as his head coach and used his first two draft picks on defensive players.

And when Roquan put the pressure on by holding out of practice and later issuing a public trade request in which he accused Poles of negotiating in bad faith and called on the McCaskeys to help get the deal done, Poles bristled a bit, but did not flinch.

And with that dust settled, Poles now has one of the best inside linebackers in football back on the field, motivated to be “the best Bear I can be” and very likely to do that in a Matt Eberflus defense he should thrive in.

Poles still has work to do — like gaining the respect of his best player after a difficult — and too personal — contract dispute. With Roquan acting as his own agent, his dealings were face-to-face with Poles — a process that didn’t end well for Roquan.

“I thought it was very distasteful to say the least,” Roquan said. “Wasn’t what I anticipated, nor … what I expected from the situation.”

Roquan spoke with more candor in his press conference Saturday than he has in previous uncomfortable media settings. But not when it came to his dealings with Poles.

“The conversation, it’s over,” he said when asked about his most recent conversation with Poles. “There’s not conversations I can’t think back to then. I just know that the conversations are over. So it’s nothing more to be said besides just going out and being the best player I can be for myself and my teammates.”

Disrespect often leaves a scar and Roquan’s hard feelings after losing this battle with Poles won’t heal quickly. Over time, maybe. But Roquan is surely conflicted about playing for an organization that he feels doesn’t respect him. And Poles is the face of that organization.

“My loyalty lies with the city of Chicago,” Roquan said, “the loyal fans here, the guys in the locker room who I put blood, sweat and tears on the line with every day and every week. I’m more focused on those guys and being the best guy I can be for [them] because that’s what matters at the end of the day and that’s who you have when this is all said and done.”

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Chicago Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker is out with a right-hand injury.

Chicago Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker will miss some time after undergoing surgery to fix a thumb injury on his right hand.

According to Chicago Sun-Times, the Bears rookie sustained an injury to his right thumb during the preseason opener against the Chiefs on August 11 but did not feel the damage until he woke up the following day.

Head coach Matt Eberflus spoke on Brisker’s injury, saying there is no timetable for a return.

“You know, sometimes you wake up with these hand injuries and it just shows up, It feels like you just kind of tweaked it a little bit —and all the sudden the next day there it is.”

While surgery is never a good thing, the Bears may have received some good news regarding the injury in terms of how long he will be out. Ian Rapoport tweeted earlier today as well stating Brisker has had surgery and with that comes the chance to be ready for Week 1:

Jaquan Brisker was drafted in the second round by the Bears in the 2022 NFL draft and has impressed early on in his career. His fit is perfect for what the Bears want to do at strong safety and his role with the defense.

Veteran DeAndre Houston-Carson filled in for Brisker during Thursday’s game in Seattle and took reps with the first team at strong safety in Saturday’s practice.

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Chicago Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker is out with a right-hand injury.

Chicago Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker will miss some time after undergoing surgery to fix a thumb injury on his right hand.

According to Chicago Sun-Times, the Bears rookie sustained an injury to his right thumb during the preseason opener against the Chiefs on August 11 but did not feel the damage until he woke up the following day.

Head coach Matt Eberflus spoke on Brisker’s injury, saying there is no timetable for a return.

“You know, sometimes you wake up with these hand injuries and it just shows up, It feels like you just kind of tweaked it a little bit —and all the sudden the next day there it is.”

While surgery is never a good thing, the Bears may have received some good news regarding the injury in terms of how long he will be out. Ian Rapoport tweeted earlier today as well stating Brisker has had surgery and with that comes the chance to be ready for Week 1:

Jaquan Brisker was drafted in the second round by the Bears in the 2022 NFL draft and has impressed early on in his career. His fit is perfect for what the Bears want to do at strong safety and his role with the defense.

Veteran DeAndre Houston-Carson filled in for Brisker during Thursday’s game in Seattle and took reps with the first team at strong safety in Saturday’s practice.

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CLEVELAND — Lucas Giolito doesn’t want to be the weakest link in the White Sox rotation.

Once the ace of the staff, a 2019 All-Star and three-time Opening Day starter since that season, Giolito is still gathering himself fter giving up seven runs over three-plus innings in the Sox’ 21-5 slaughter at the hands of the Astros Thursday. The loss gave the Sox a split of a four-game series after they won the first two games.

“It’s obviously a tough year for me personally and for the team up until this point,” Giolito told the Sun-Times in Cleveland. “It’s tough because that was a series we wanted to win, I took the ball the last day and it’s my job to give us a chance to win. It didn’t happen and I put us in a horrible hole for the rest of the game.”

Giolito is second among Sox starters in innings with 116 1/3 innings but he will take a 5.34 ERA into his next start at the Orioles Tuesday. Lance Lynn has a 5.30 ERA in 71 1/3 innings, but Lynn’s ERA over his last six starts is 3.06. Giolito has a 7.39 ERA in his last six starts with 42 hits and 12 walks allowed over 28 innings.

“It’s been a lot of stuff this year trying to work through,” Giolito said. “Mechanically, physically. [Thursday] there were a few pitches that stick out in my brain, it was like ‘dang, if I had just executed that it could have gone completely different.’ ”

Giolito and pitching coach Ethan Katz are close from their days together when Katz coached him in high school. Giolito said he “feels bad” for Katz knowing the amount of time Katz has devoted to trying to fix him.

“I feel fine,” Giolito said. “Ideally I’d like for the ball to be coming out better. You deal with what you’ve got. Even when I’m not at my best, stuff wise there are ways to navigate lineups and get outs.”

Cy Young candidate Dylan Cease and Johnny Cueto would likely be the Sox’ Game 1 and 2 starters if the playoffs were to start today — that is, if the Sox were in them. At 61-59 going into their game against the Guardians Saturday, the Sox face an uphill climb.

Giolito is facing one as well.

“At this point all I can control is putting in the work in my days between starts and be as prepared as possible,” Giolito said, “and then the big thing is going out and trusting my stuff and executing pitches.”

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Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker will miss an extended period of time with a right hand injury, head coach Matt Eberflus said Saturday night.

Eberflus said the Bears were hopeful that Brisker would return before the season opener on Sept. 11, but that the team should find out more information soon.

Brisker hurt his hand in the Bears’ preseason opener against the Chiefs on Aug. 11 but didn’t feel the injury until he woke up the next morning, the coach said.

The Bears drafted Brisker in the second round. He arrived at training camp on time, signing his rookie contract the morning of the day that veterans reported. He and the Bears had quibbled about guarantees he’d receive in Year 3 of the deal.

The team’s coaches have praised the Penn State alum since the day he arrived at rookie minicamp, saying that his knack for takeaways and comfort level in the defense made him a natural fit at the starting strong safety.

DeAndre Houston-Carson started in Brisker’s place Thursday in Seattle.

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CLEVELAND — The White Sox’ scheduled game against the Cleveland Guardians Saturday at Progressive will start in a rain delay.

The game was slated to begin at 5:10 p.m. (CT).

Right-handers Johnny Cueto (5-5, 2.78) and Shane Bieber (8-6, 3.18) are the scheduled starters.

The Sox (61-59) will try to halt a three-game losing streak and cut their 3 1/2 game gap behind the first-place Guardians in the AL Central. The Sox trail the second-place Twins by 2 1/2 games.

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Bears linebacker Roquan Smith practiced in part Saturday for the first time since beginning his “hold-in” amid a contract dispute. While he was limited to individual drills, it was a significant step after missing the first 15 practices.

Smith is scheduled to speak to the media Saturday for the first time since April.

As he enters the final season of his five-year rookie contract, Smith is looking for a massive extension. If he doesn’t get one, he’ll have to play for $9.7 million and become an unrestricted free agent in March.

Smith and general manager Ryan Poles said in the offseason they wanted to get an extension done, but negotiations have been fruitless and turned bitter once the “hold-in” lasted deep into training camp.

Smith ripped Poles for trying to take advantage of him with “take it or leave it” offers in a public letter asking to be traded Aug. 9.

Poles responded by saying he still hoped to sign Smith to an extension, but would do whatever was in the Bears’ best interest if it became necessary to trade him.

Poles also said negotiations have been complicated because Smith doesn’t have an agent and represents himself.

“There’s emotions involved, and it’s tough,” Poles said. “It’s a very unique situation that we’ve had to deal with, and I thought we’ve done a pretty good job, which again that’s why I’m a little disappointed we’re at this spot.”

Once Smith went public with his displeasure, the Bears rescinded their goodwill gesture of putting him on the physically unable to perform list the next day. That meant Smith had to practice or face team discipline, including fines.

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What is the plan with Teven Jenkins?  No one seems to know as the Bears have had him play right tackle, then shifted him inside to play guard with the starters in the second game.  Jenkins has performed well in two games, but is that enough to keep him on the roster?

Teven Jenkins has lined up at right guard and right tackle and has bounced back brilliantly since his injury but according to reports is still up for trade.

Since Teven Jenkins has been back he has been practicing every week. He played the most snaps of any offensive lineman on the team against the Chiefs.  He played well against the Chiefs at right tackle, and Michael Schofield didn’t play as well at right guard so the Bears moved Jenkins inside to right guard.

Teven Jenkins played well with the starters at right guard, but did Jenkins merely get this opportunity because they’ve already settled on Schofield as the starter at right guard?  Other starters sitting out the game were players already assured of a starting role.

So what is the plan with Jenkins?  Is he going to be on the roster or not?  Are the Bears utilizing the pre-season to showcase his value to a team in a potential trade?  There seems to be a myriad of unanswered questions according to this news that the Bears are still trying to trade him.

Regardless of the trade rumors, Jenkins has more value by being with the Chicago Bears than being traded to another team.

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