The Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace is on the hot seat by the media and many of the fans. Some, like myself and the owner, that seat might not be as warm. I have heard many say all of Ryan Pace’s first-round picks have been busts minus Roquan Smith. Since he failed by not finding a franchise quarterback, I have also heard that he should be fired.
This article intends not to debate my opinion versus the readers on Ryan Pace. However, there seems to be a lot of belief that Pace and head coach Matt Nagy will be targeting their win-now quarterback either in free agency, trade, or the draft. My question to everybody is, why do we believe this is the truth.
When Ryan Pace was hired back in 2015, he shared how he valued every draft pick, and getting more shots at players creates finding more talent. Ryan Pace was all about heavy upside players early (projects) over well-established college players.
This seemingly changed during the 2018 NFL draft when Pace choose Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith over Trumaine Edmunds. Ryan Pace then drafted 20-year old James Daniels with his second pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
Was Edmunds, who is bigger and just as fast and productive in college as Smith, a lesser-known product? In theory, Smith would be more of a projection coming into the NFL level with his lack of size.
Ryan Pace hasn’t had many draft-picks in the first couple of rounds since 2018 due to the Khalil Mack trade. We really do not know if he changed his mindset a lot for drafting from 2015 to now. Ryan Pace once said that if you do not have a quarterback in this league, the team won’t be competitive. He also mentioned how he would take a swing every year on a quarterback because it is worth it.
I addressed all of this with everybody at Bear Goggles On and asked, “Do you believe that Ryan Pace is going to make big moves to find a quarterback?” This is a serious question. Why do we think he would go out and trade for Deshaun Watson? Why do we believe that anybody from the organization tells the media the truth?
Matt Nagy said numerous times that David Montgomery needs more carries, Cole Kmet needs to be involved more, and Mitch Trubisky earned the right to start. All of which were essentially lies. No offense to anybody in the Chicago Bears organization, because I am beginning to believe that they intentionally keep everybody’s eyes in one direction while attempting to pull off something much different.