Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace will collaborate to draft a quarterback for the Chicago Bears
The keyword on Wednesday was collaborating. After George McCaskey, Ted Phillips, Matt Nagy, and Ryan Pace all said “collaborate” more than once, Pace warned us that we were going to hear the word “collaborate” often in the Chicago Bears end-of-season presser. Thanks for the heads up.
The word collaborate may mean nothing and come off as hollow for Chicago Bears fans, but it is much more telling than you may think.
They all mentioned that this time there will be collaboration when it comes to fixing the quarterback position. That is a big difference this time from last time. What does that mean?
Well, Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace “collaborated” just last year by trading for Nick Foles. However, It is true to note that the veteran quarterback route is not always as feasible as “oh we want him”. The quarterback has to be available contractually that year, mutual interest has to be there, the money has to be there. Things have to add up.
However, every year, multiple quarterbacks are drafted are from rounds 1-7 with the top going rounds 1-3.
Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace collaborated on Foles, but Nagy has never drafted a quarterback as a head coach.
When it comes to collaborating, and not being collaborative last time, they are talking about Ryan Pace and John Fox. Pace did not collaborate with Fox and the situation was messy. Now. Pace seems to be using the lack of collaboration as the reason the Trubisky pick was so poor.
Nagy feels he deserves to draft a quarterback because he did not whiff on Mitch Trubisky. The Bears’ ownership believes that Nagy will help Pace this time. The constant use of the word collaboration makes it hard to think they will not draft quarterback high.
Extending job security
Beyond that, we do not know the status of Pace and Nagy with their contracts. That was not discussed by either. However, McCaskey said that next year at this time they will know if they should keep Nagy and Pace or move on.
One way to help them decide to keep them is to draft a young quarterback. Any progress is looked at as growth, and any issues can be rookie growing pains. Pace and Nagy can both claim that a second year with their rookie quarterback will go a long way.
Saying collaboration was able to absolve Pace from blame for Trubisky. Saying collaboration was able to get Nagy his first shot at drafting a quarterback as a head coach. Saying collaboration may buy both 2021 and 2022 with jobs when 2021 was not guaranteed.
The two may have gone a long way by being able to collaborate together.