Bears GM Ryan Poles hopes to sign Joe Thuney to extension after deals with Gordon, Edwards

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Bears GM Ryan Poles hopes to sign Joe Thuney to extension after deals with Gordon, Edwards

2025-04-23 03:44 Last Updated At：04:01

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles was glad to sign cornerback Kyler Gordon and linebacker T.J. Edwards to contract extensions.

One more player he would like to get a deal done with is guard Joe Thuney.

“Yeah, that’s definitely, I would say, one of the priorities moving forward,” Poles said on Tuesday.

The Bears acquired the 32-year-old Thuney from Kansas City in a trade in March, one of several moves they made to overhaul a shaky offensive line and give Caleb Williams the protection he needs. The quarterback was sacked a franchise-record and league-leading 68 times after being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick last year. The Bears hope that number goes down in a big way after reinforcing the line and hiring coach Ben Johnson.

Topping the list is Thuney. A nine-year veteran and an All-Pro the past two years, he played on two Super Bowl champions in New England and two more in Kansas City.

It's not hard to see why Poles would want to extend him. But it's not clear if Thuney feels the same way or would rather test free agency with his contract set to expire after the upcoming season.

Though he said he was “grateful to be here” and “pumped to play” in Chicago at a news conference following the trade, he sidestepped questions about a potential extension.

“I kind of let my agent handle all that. I just try and focus on the game and football, just getting ready for the season," he said at the time.

Besides landing Thuney, the Bears acquired guard Jonah Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams. They signed center Drew Dalman, too, and might add another blocker with the No. 10 pick in the draft on Thursday.

Poles hasn't ignored the defense, either, this offseason. The Bears added two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo. They also retained two key players by extending Gordon through 2028 and Edwards through 2027.

The 25-year-old Gordon was the first player drafted by Poles when he was taken in the second round out of Washington in 2022. He has five interceptions and 17 passes defended in three seasons.

Edwards, 28, signed with Chicago in 2023 and has had 284 total tackles, 14 quarterback hits and 6 1/2 sacks in that span. He set career highs with four sacks and 12 tackles for loss last season while starting all 17 games for the third year in a row. Edwards spent his first four seasons in Philadelphia after going undrafted out of Wisconsin.

“When you see a guy like that go from being undrafted and working himself into his first contract, elevating his game again and getting a second contract, I think that’s special and I think that motivates all the other guys that come in the door," Poles said.

“And again, no one is more deserving than he is. Kyler as well. Really happy to get that done. Impact player for us. Ability to make plays all over the field in different phases. He’s a guy that I believe is ascending and will continue to grow when he gets into this new defense, I think his game can go to the next level as well.”

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Employers added a surprising 177,000 jobs as job market shows resilience. Unemployment stays at 4.2%

2025-05-02 20:55 Last Updated At：21:01

WASHINGTON (AP) —

American employers added a better-than-expected 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience in the face of President Donald Trump's trade wars.

Hiring was down slightly from a revised 185,000 in March and came in above economists’ expectations for a modest 135,000. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.2%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

President Donald Trump’s aggressive and unpredictable policies – including massive import taxes – have clouded the outlook for the economy and the job market and raised fears that the American economy is headed toward recession.

Transportation and warehousing companies added 29,000 jobs last month, suggesting that companies have been stocking up before essential, imported goods are hit with a wave of new tariffs, driving prices higher. Healthcare companies added nearly 51,000 jobs and bars, restaurants almost 17,000 and construction firms 11,000. Factories lost 1,000 jobs.

Labor Department revisions shaved 58,000 jobs from February and March payrolls.

Average hourly earnings ticked up 0.2% from March and 3.8% from a year ago, nearing the 3.5% that economists view as consistent with the 2% inflation the Federal Reserve wants to see.

The report showed that 518,000 people entered the labor force, and the percentage of those working or looking for work ticked up slightly.

“We are not seeing right now any really adverse effects on the employment market,’’ Boston College economist Brian Bethune said before the report came out.

Yet many economists fear that the U.S. job market will deteriorate if economic growth takes a hit from trade wars.

Trump’s massive taxes on imports to the U.S. are likely to raise costs for Americans and American businesses that depend on supplies from overseas. They also threaten to slow economic growth. His immigration crackdown threatens to make it more difficult for hotels, restaurants and construction firms to fill job openings. By purging federal workers and cancelling federal contracts, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency risks wiping out jobs inside the government and out.

“Looking ahead, we expect the steep tariff increases and the surge in uncertainty and financial market volatility will result in a more pronounced labor market downshift than previously anticipated,” Lydia Boussour, senior economist at the accounting and consulting giant EY, wrote this week. “Large cuts to the federal workforce and the cancellations of many government contracts will also be a drag on payroll growth in coming months.’’

A slowdown in immigration “will weigh on labor supply dynamics, further constraining job growth. We foresee the unemployment rate rising toward 5% in 2025.’’

Trump’s policies have shaken financial markets and frightened consumers. The Conference Board, a business group, reported Tuesday that Americans’ confidence in the economy fell for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

American workers have at least one thing going for them. Despite the uncertainty about fallout from Trump’s policies, many employers don’t want to risk letting employees go – not after seeing how hard it was to bring people back from the massive but short-lived layoffs of the 2020 COVID-19 recession.

“They laid millions of these people off, and they had a hell of a time getting them back to work,’’ Boston College’s Bethune said. "So for now, the unemployment rate and the number of people filing claims for jobless benefits every week remain low by historical standards.

Bethune does not expect Musk’s cuts to the federal workforce to show up much in the April jobs numbers. For one thing, job cuts orders by the billionaire’s DOGE are still being challenged in court. For another, some of those leaving federal agencies were forced into early retirement – and don’t show up in the Labor Department’s count of the unemployed.