Chicago Bears: Revisiting Ryan Pace’s decision to let Cameron Meredith join the Saints

The Chicago Bears play the New Orleans Saints this afternoon. We take a look back at Ryan Pace’s decision to let Cameron Meredith walk and sign with the Saints.

Let us start by taking you back in time. Back to the year 2017, when the Chicago Bears were led by two different mindsets. First, Ryan Pace was brought in to shake up the organization. The Bears hired Pace in 2015 as a fresh, young General Manager who they hoped would bring a new philosophy to the franchise.

Second, Ryan Pace turned around and hired John Fox as his first head coach. Not everyone remembers this, but Pace was accompanied by George McCaskey and Ted Phillips on his coaching interviews. Although everyone said he had full authority to hire his coach, one must wonder if he was swayed into hiring John Fox.

Pace and Fox seemed to butt heads from a football perspective often. They seemed to have two different ideas on where the team was heading into the future. Well, after combining for a 14-48 record over three seasons, Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears parted ways with John Fox. A fantastic move that led the Bears ultimately hiring Matt Nagy as their head coach.

Nagy has shifted the culture around for this team drastically. This hire might have been one of the best moves Pace has made while working as the Chicago Bears General Manager. He has made some other great moves though too. The obvious one is the trade for Khalil Mack. However, sometimes it is not about the moves you do make, but more about the moves you do not make.

If we rewind time, even more, we can go back to the Chicago Bears 2015 season. During the offseason leading up to the regular season, the Bears traded wide receiver Brandon Marshall to the New York Jets. This left Alshon Jeffery as their leading wideout. Unfortunately, Jeffery played hurt most of 2015. This may have kept the Bears from trying to extend him.

Then, in 2016, Jeffery was outperformed by Cameron Meredith. Meredith was an undrafted free agent. He too played hurt, but over 10 games finished with 888 yards on 66 catches. Meredith also scored four touchdowns for the Bears. Despite his performance, the team finished with only three wins on the year.

During the 2017 offseason, the Chicago Bears were unable to convince Alshon Jeffery to stay. This may or may not have been a mistake, however, they thought they could lean on Cameron Meredith to perform well again in 2017. Not to mention they were counting on their 2015, first-round draft Kevin White to turn into something great.

White turned into a bust and Cameron Meredith never played a regular-season down for the Bears that year. A bad knee injury occurred in a preseason game that caused Meredith to tear ligaments in his knee. It was not pretty. Ryan Pace had to make a decision about Meredith’s contract heading into the 2018 season.

Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears tendered Cameron Meredith for $1.9 million. Since Meredith was an undrafted free agent, the Bears were not eligible to receive any compensation if another team offered Meredith a better offer. Two teams swooped in and thought Meredith was worth more despite the knee and the Saints were one of them. The other was the Baltimore Ravens.

The Saints offered Meredith a two-year contract worth $9.6 million with $5.4 million in guarantees. Since the Chicago Bears did not match the offer, Meredith left the Bears and play for the Saints. Many argued that if Ryan Pace spent just $1 million more for a higher tender, then Meredith would not have walked away for nothing. Any team wanting to sign him would have had to give up a second-round draft pick. That was not going to happen.

Those who say Ryan Pace made a bad decision should realize, this was not one. Cameron Meredith hardly played for the Saints last year. They released him and he signed with the Patriots. The Patriots also released him and he is now a free agent without a team. Pace trusted his medical staff and made the right call.

It does not excuse the overpaying of other receivers like Markus Wheaton, but the Bears were able to go out and secure Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller and now the likes of Javon Wims, Riley Ridley and Cordarrelle Patterson. I would say Ryan Pace has done just fine rebuilding the Bears wide receiver group. In fact, that might be their best unit on the team as far as talent and depth are concerned.

As we fast forward back to the present day, Pace made the right call on not signing Cameron Meredith to a higher tender or a bigger contract.