Chicago Bears: Winners and losers of the 2020 preseason cancellation

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Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Winner No. 1: Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Pace

We won’t mince the controversy here. It’d be a reach to ever be wholly optimistic about what Pace is doing. But one of the more negative talking points of his tenure — constructing too old an NFL roster — has real benefits at this point in time.

Per Philly Voice, the Chicago Bears entered last season tied for the 10th oldest roster at 26.2 average years. Last month, they confirmed seven signings, some of which included inking 33-year-old Jimmy Graham, 28-year-olds Tyler Bray and Brent Urban, and 32-year-old long snapper Patrick Scales. And in March, their signing of the year came in making 30-year-old Robert Quinn a $70 million man.

In other words, they may as well have signed these contracts on an Arabic scroll, and a Thomas Jefferson-like feathered pen.

And yes, I’m very much aware that they recently signed their entire 2020 NFL Draft class to contracts. But in a plug-and-play sense, the players taking the lion’s share of the snaps for the Bears will be seasoned veterans.

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Thus, it should be quite the benefit that Ryan Pace didn’t overwhelm his coaching staff with a green-as-grass roster that won’t have a normal OTA or preseason to make their mistakes in.

Depth charts in July are mostly projection-based, but take ESPN.com’s prediction for example. Of the 11 defensive starters, every one of them either: a) played for the Bears last season, or b) are what my generation calls “oldheads” in 31-year-old Buster Skrine and soon-to-be-30-year-old Tashaun Gipson.

They’ve been around the block, and know what it takes to be mentally and physically ready for kickoff. And even subpackages, they have players that know the Chicago way.

Whether or not they produce turnovers on the field, their lack of roster turnover could mean a positive effect in continuity.

We should be timid in suggesting this means the Bears are title contenders, but let’s not forget how important it will be for the Chicago Bears to take advantage of their schedule over the first six weeks of the season.

Those old legs could come back to cripple them down the line, but if that comes at the expense of a 6-0 or 5-1 start, we would be pretty proud of those greybeards. And that means something we haven’t seen in some time: Ryan Pace praise.

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