Nobody gets to hit the reverse button. You can only imagine how much it eats at Ryan Pace to know that he took Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson. He wishes he could have gotten another chance.
While nobody gets that second chance it is eery how similar this feels to make up for his 2018 mistake. You have seen the comparisons for Mike Glennon being Andy Dalton this time around. However, last time Pace was in the role of pick three and moving to two for the inexperienced quarterback who causes the college football star to fall. This time, he is down lower and is coming up to save the falling star from falling.
While GMs like Pace regret passing on Mahomes and Watson and letting them fall to pick 10 or 12, Ryan Pace now is in the seat of finding the potential gem at pick 12.
Take away the off of the field and we have to admit we do not know why DeShaun Watson fell nobody knew that stuff back then. Still, it feels similar to the situation that happens too often. We see a quarterback so much and he gets his game nitpicked apart until he becomes less valuable.
Justin Herbert is similar to DeShaun Watson in that the two were in the spotlight so long that they had their games pick apart until they were not the top quarterback on many teams’ boards. However, they were top prospects, had great success in college, and won big bowl games. Justin Fields checks the same boxes.
Ryan Pace let Patrick Mahomes fall to 10 and let Matt Nagy…okay Andy Reid…trade up for Patrick Mahomes. Not many GMs get to live that down. Ryan Pace did and got to be in a scenario where teams let Justin Fields fall to 11. Pace, with Nagy, got to come up and get their man. It feels so much like Pace got a second chance and made the right choice this time. Not often does life throw one to you like that.