Cameron Meredith headed to IR, Ryan Pace made right call
Cameron Meredith heads to IR for the New Orleans Saints, proves Ryan Pace made right decision.
There’s one thing in today’s society that doesn’t happen too often, and that is when people admit that they are wrong. Everybody wants to be right all the time, but obviously, that’s impossible. Sometimes, you have to take your medicine. So here goes:
I was wrong.
When Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears chose not to match the New Orleans Saints’ offer to Cameron Meredith. I was not pleased.
In fact, here are some of my tweets at the time of the decision.
The #Bears with Cam Meredith weren't going 12-4 and the Bears without Cam Meredith aren't going 4-12, but the way this was handled is arguably the worst decision Ryan Pace has made in his tenure as GM.
— Bill Zimmerman (@ZimmermanSXM) April 11, 2018
Today, Ryan Pace told the Chicago #Bears fans he values Dion Sims significantly more than Cameron Meredith. That makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine.
— Bill Zimmerman (@ZimmermanSXM) April 11, 2018
The #Bears decision today with Meredith, in my eyes, means they need to use one of their top 2 picks on a WR. No WR is worth a top 10 selection this year, so they should focus their second-round pick at WR. Christian Kirk would be a wise choice.
— Bill Zimmerman (@ZimmermanSXM) April 11, 2018
Now, I’ll take a minute to pat myself on the back. The Bears certainly did use a second round pick on Anthony Miller and Dion Sims is as useless as I thought he would be. But that doesn’t change the fact that the first tweet, the one that was highly critical of Ryan Pace, was, in a word, wrong.
The New Orleans Saints signed Dez Bryant to help their struggling wide receiving corps (after Michael Thomas) and that was necessary largely because of Cameron Meredith.
More background on why Saints are now signing Dez Bryant: New Orleans’ WR Cameron Meredith is being placed on injured reserve and will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery, per sources. Meredith is expected to make a full recovery.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 8, 2018
The Bears were very forthright in their decision not to re-sign Meredith. They said it was due to his medicals. They didn’t trust that he was ready to come back. That decision looked questionable after week one when Meredith found the end zone, but at this point, it’s clear, Meredith has not panned out.
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Meredith has appeared in six games, catching nine passes for 114 yards and the one touchdown from week one. Now, Meredith is being placed on IR.
Perhaps Meredith will return to form next year, but the decision to not re-sign Meredith was about where his health was this year, and clearly, Pace and the Bears were right, he wasn’t ready, and that was proven when he could barely play. When you can’t get on the field to catch passes from Drew Brees, you know something is off.
If that’s the production Meredith had with Brees, you can imagine it wouldn’t be close to that if he was catching balls from Mitch Trubisky. That’s not an offense to Mitch, but the most ardent Trubisky supporter isn’t going to put him in the same category of Brees.
Had the Bears made the decision to match the offer and keep him, they almost certainly would not have Anthony Miller on the team. After signing Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel and matching Meredith and still having Kevin White on the roster, it’s a safe bet that they would not have invested major draft capital into the wide receiver position as well. You simply can’t commit that much to one position in today’s NFL.
I have the privilege to write for a website that allows me to give my opinions on the Chicago Bears on a daily basis. It’s an amazing thing that I get to do, but you know what? Not every one of my opinions is going to be right, and this one goes in that category. Pace had the right evaluation of his player and did the right thing for the team.
Here’s hoping Cameron Meredith has great success in the future, but at this point, every Bears’ fan should be comfortable in the decision the team made to let Meredith walk.