Bears General Manager Ryan Poles says his responsibility is to build a long-term, sustainable winner in Chicago, and that’s why it was an easy decision to trade a highly paid 32-year-old pass rusher like Robert Quinn.
Poles said today after trading Quinn to the Eagles that acquiring a fourth-round pick for Quinn was undoubtedly the right move.
“It just made too much sense in what we are trying to do here in building a championship team,” Poles said, via Mark Grote of WSCR in Chicago.
Poles said Quinn has done everything asked of him in Chicago and the decision to trade him is not a poor reflection on him as a player or a person.
“I know the Eagles are really fortunate to have him. Part of the tough part about this job is having to make tough decisions. You also know that you are tweaking the fibers of your locker room,” Poles said.
Quinn has a base salary of $7.8 million this year and a salary of $13.9 million next year, so it’s easy to see why the Bears think now is a good time to focus on acquiring draft picks and cap space. Still, when the Bears are only half a game out of the wild card and coming off their best win of the season, it has to be disappointing to the locker room for the front office to make a move that is about getting better in the future, while getting worse this year.
