Bears GM Ryan Poles, coach Ben Johnson complete roster via draft, so what exactly have they built?

There’s still plenty left for the Bears to sort out over the next few months as far as possible position changes and depth chart hierarchy, but general manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson essentially completed their roster for this season with the draft.

Coming off a season in which they went 5-12, tied for the eighth-worst record in the NFL, the Bears traded for two starting guards in Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, then signed center Drew Dalman. They reworked the defensive line by signing tackle Grady Jarrett and end Dayo Odeyingbo. Those five have $205.5 million on their contracts and account for 21.3% of the salary cap.

With four picks in the first two rounds, the only portion of the draft where teams can reasonably expect to find immediate help, they picked up tight end Colston Loveland, wide receiver Luther Burden III, offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo and defensive lineman Shemar Turner.

Those are a lot of new faces and it's a lot of change.

But mostly those additions and others are ancillary to the biggest move of the Bears’ offseason, which was hiring Johnson. They went all-in on him and his scheme, particularly by drafting skill players in Loveland and Burden at positions where the Bears already have invested heavily, and now the pressure is on him to make all of this look as good on the field as it does in his head.

That’s a huge ask considering the team has won 15 games over the last three seasons — Johnson won 15 games with the Lions just last season — but high expectations are fair for the most coveted coaching candidate in the league. The Bears were smart to hire him and smart to bend their draft board to his preferences.

The next biggest change the Bears are counting on this season is a serious stride from quarterback Caleb Williams, who showed promise as a rookie despite playing for incompetent coaches and working with an undependable offensive line. Their hope is that Johnson plus the roster improvements plus Williams’ individual progress in the offseason equals a quarterback ready to take on any opponent.

On paper, the roster surely isn’t perfect for Johnson — that takes time — but there’s enough talent for him to succeed. The Bears haven’t finished in the top half of the league in scoring in the last six seasons, and that sorry streak should end now.

Johnson helped handpick the interior of the revamped offensive line and inherited a possible future Pro Bowl pick in right tackle Darnell Wright, who could move to left tackle, and he and Poles thought highly enough of Trapilo to draft him 56th overall. Three of the six offensive linemen drafted in the second round last year were full-time starters as rookie.

Even with uncertainty about returning left tackle Braxton Jones, that’s enough help on the offensive line to make it work.

However Johnson decides to set the offensive line, it’s imperative that he figure it out sooner than later. The Bears need to get a full training camp with five starting linemen and to avoid the last-minute changes they’ve made over the last few seasons. That shouldn’t happen on a roster that’s ready to compete.

The weapons around Williams include wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift. All of them underperformed last season in Shane Waldron’s offense but have strong track records.

Perfect? No. Sufficient? Yes.

As the Bears trust Johnson, he appears to be trusting defensive coordinator Dennis Allen with that side of the ball. It will be interesting to see how involved Johnson will be on defense given that he’s the offensive play caller and Allen has 14 years of experience as a coordinator or head coach.

Johnson’s predecessors weren’t able to manage that. Matt Nagy began tending to the defense only when it was too late, and Matt Eberflus was helpless when it came to getting his offensive coordinators on track.

Johnson and Allen started with a strong base thanks to Poles assembling a good core on defense with players like defensive end Montez Sweat, cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon and linebacker T.J. Edwards. If safety Jaquan Brisker is healthy, he’s a disruptive force, too.

Allen seems to have wanted more speed on defense and more versatility on the defensive line, and the Bears tilted that way with their recent acquisitions. Jarrett is a major factor in the pass rush from the tackle spot, Turner came up playing defensive end and fourth-round pick Ruben Hyppolite II ran an elite 40-yard dash time of 4.39 seconds at his pro day.

If Allen stays for at least a few years, the personnel will shift increasingly toward his criteria and the Bears will expand their defensive line to include a quality second string as well. For now, though, just like Johnson, there can’t be any excuses about a lack of talent.

The sum of all those pieces should make the Bears a playoff team if Johnson and Williams live up to what everyone thinks they can be. It helps, too, that the team isn’t pre-celebrating how great it’s going to be like it did going into last season. There’s much more of a prove-it mentality at Halas Hall these days, and that’s exactly what Johnson and Williams need to do.