Ryan Pace completely revamped the Chicago Bears roster
Going back to the 2014 roster when Pace took over, the team was at the bottom of nearly every position. Pace had little to work with and free agents were not willing to come to Chicago without being extremely overpaid.
The team still had some talent on offense and defense, but the talent was either young and untapped or the player was on the downside of his career. Matt Forte for example was 30 years old and only played another two (not very productive) seasons. Jay Cutler was the quarterback and the team kept him around throughout 2016 too.
Offensively, the team went from Cutler, Forte, Alshon Jeffery, Eddie Royal and Martellus Bennett to a team with young playmakers. We will get into that more later. On defense, the team was counting on players like Shea McClellin, Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston and more.
How did Pace revamp the team over the first few years? Well, he started with the draft. The team drafted Eddie Goldman and Adrian Amos. Both have become solid players in the NFL and Goldman is extremely underrated. Pace missed on Kevin White who was a high-risk draft pick, but also the consensus second-best wide receiver behind Amari Cooper. Had he not had the stress fracture he might not have lost his burst and who knows what his career would have looked like in the end.
In 2016, Pace selected Leonard Floyd in the first round. Floyd gets too much flack, to be honest. He is a very good football player, just not a sack specialist that everyone had hoped for. Other important players from the 2016 draft include Cody Whitehair, Nick Kwiatkoski, Jordan Howard and Deon Bush. This was a nice haul for Pace in year two and started the shift from rebuild to a contender.