Chicago Bears: To trade up or not to trade up
Ryan Pace has traded up often with the Chicago Bears. Are the picks worth the lack of depth?
After regressing from 12-4 to 8-8, all areas of the Chicago Bears are going to be under pressure in 2020. Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky will take the most heat, but Ryan Pace is not far behind with similar deserved questions entering the offseason.
Pace came up the ranks as a scout who climbed the Saints front office, and found himself in Chicago. He is excellent at evaluating players, and fans can admit that his mid-round picks are some of his best decisions.
However, the counter to that, is that he knows this, and may enter drafts with too much confidence.
Pace gets the urge that he has to have a player, as shown by his propensity to trade up. After going through his first year as General Manager without making a trade, he has traded up in each of the past four drafts.
Some of these can be good decisions, while some can be more questionable. Here is a look at each trade.
Leonard Floyd– The Chicago Bears moved up two spots to nab Floyd, jumping the New York Giants. The move cost them a fourth-round pick, 106th overall.
Nick Kwiatkoski-The Bears moved up one spot to pick Kwiatkoski. This cost them the 206th overall pick, a sixth-rounder.
Mitch Trubisky-The famous trade also saw them move up one spot. The move cost them the 67th overall pick, and 111th, as well as the 70th overall pick in a future draft.
Eddie Jackson-The Bears moved up five spots to take their starting safety. It cost them the 197th overall pick.
Anthony Miller-The Bears traded a future 56th overall pick and a 105th overall pick to get to the 51st pick and take Anthony Miller.
David Montgomery-The Bears moved up 14 spots, and it cost them 162nd overall pick. However, they got back a 205th overall pick, so they dropped 43 spots in the sixth round. They also threw in a 2020 fourth-round selection
The obvious argument will be that the majority of the picks turned out to be hits. Also, while it easy to say that Pace could have waited for Mahomes and Watson in the Trubisky draft, he may have missed out on Jackson in 2016 and there were not many other options available.
Still, the fact of the matter is that they have missed out on the following picks plus a fourth-rounder this year.
56th
67th
70th
105th
106th
111th
197th
206th
That is in addition to the picks that they would have made at their original slot. That is 14 players who could have been brought in when the team only brought in six. In some cases, they may have had to settle for their backup pick. In others, the player on their eyes may have fallen.
Still, one thing we know is that drafting is hard. Pace is good at it, but nobody bats 1.000. The more picks you have, the more room for error you have. He surely would not have hit on the eight extra picks, but if he added two or three more starters from those, perhaps a guard and tight end, it could have made the difference.
Next. Does Trubisky deserve another shot. dark
Revisionist history is one thing, but it is worth questioning if targeting specific players is worth trading quantity and potentially depth. It surely would help to have an extra fourth-round pick this year, knowing the offseason the Bears are going to enter.
Still, Pace mentioned that with two second-round picks, and more overall picks than 2018, the team has a chance to be aggressive in the draft yet again.