Chicago Bears Where are They Now: Ryan Pace’s first-round draft picks

Did Ryan Pace do any better for the Chicago Bears in 2016?

The 2015 draft was not a complete bust for Pace as the team found Eddie Goldman and Adrian Amos that year. The 2016 draft was slightly better for Ryan Pace than it was in 2015 though. 2016 saw some solid additions with the likes of Cody Whitehair, Nick Kwiatkoski, Deon Bush, Jordan Howard and DeAndre Houston-Carson. Not to mention, Leonard Floyd was taken ninth overall that season.

The first round of the draft might be viewed as a bust by most Chicago Bears fans, but it was not as bad as many think. Leonard Floyd is coming off his best season, unfortunately, it was for a different team. There might be a theme with some of Ryan Pace’s draft picks where the player himself is not a bust, but the draft pick could be.

Floyd was a top prospect coming out of Georgia. He was viewed by many as a top-10 pick. Going ninth overall made sense. Unfortunately, Floyd did not live up to his potential as a pass rusher. Things flashed for him his rookie season when he grabbed seven sacks in only 12 games. Fans and the organization were excited. However, Floyd never saw more than 4.5 sacks for the Bears after that season. Ryan Pace decided not to pick up his option and Floyd moved onto the Rams in 2020.

The selection of Leonard Floyd himself was not an issue, but allowing him to walk away now looks to be the mistake. That said, on paper, I was not about to say that bringing in Robert Quinn to replace Floyd was a bad move. At the time, Quinn was coming off an 11.5 sack season while Floyd had the same amount of sacks over the prior three-year span combined. Floyd proved Ryan Pace (and many including myself) wrong when he finished with 10.5 sacks last year for the Rams.