Recipe for how the Chicago Bears can give fans a Happy Thanksgiving
Ryan Pace cannot be a deciding factor in hiring the next head coach
I have no idea what the Chicago Bears are planning to do with Ryan Pace. The one thing you can say about him is that he has helped bring this team into the current century. He spearheaded the new Halas Hall development and I am sure he has helped in the Arlington Heights situation too. That said, he can no longer be the general manager of the Chicago Bears. If anything, they can give him a front-office position that allows him to oversee some of the football operations, but that’s it.
In my honest opinion, I do believe Ryan Pace has shown growth since taking on his very first general manager position back in 2015. That said, he is now on the hook for hiring the inept Matt Nagy while also putting together a football team that has only one winning season and two playoff appearances during his seven-year tenure. Furthermore, the team never won a single game during that span either. You might notice I didn’t mention John Fox. That’s because I absolve him from that hire since I am confident he was forced into it.
If we look at Ryan Pace’s draft record, many people believe either one way or the other. Trading away draft picks for Khalil Mack was not a bad move in my opinion. It hasn’t worked out as planned, but Mack is a game changer even when not on the stat sheets. He has had plenty of hits and misses in free agency — including some big head-scratchers like giving $6 million in guaranteed money to Markus Wheaton who in turn caught three of 17 passes for 51 yards. Yikes!
His draft picks have been the same. Roquan Smith is an All-Pro linebacker who I consider elite. Kevin White was a top-10 pick who never panned out due to some injuries. The Mitch Trubisky draft pick speaks for itself but it’s also not as bad as it looks and although I’d rather have Justin Fields (or Deshaun Watson (less massage issue) / Patrick Mahomes) I think most can finally admit Matt Nagy was a bigger issue than the 2017 first-round pick.
Now, trading up for Trubisky was aggressive, which I have no problem with, but knowing that you could have one of three quarterbacks worth of the third-round pick, staying put made the most sense. This is my only real issue with the Trubisky pick that year as I wanted Watson not knowing of his off-the-field issues.
Pace has hit well in later rounds, but he has also had blunders like Adam Shaheen in the second round. Here’s a quick list of guys I’d consider hits for Pace though:
2017
- Eddie Goldman, DT – Round 2
- Adrian Amos, S – Round 5
2016
- Leonard Floyd, OLB – Round 1 (even though the Bears botched his development)
- Cody Whitehair, OG/C – Round 2
- Nick Kwiatkoski, ILB – Round 4
- Deon Bush, S – Round 4
- Jordan Howard, RB – Round 5
- DeAndre Houston-Carson – S, Round 6
2017
- Eddie Jackson, S – Round 4
- Tarik Cohen, RB – Round 4
2018
- Roquan Smith, ILB – Round 1
- James Daniels, OG – Round 2
- Bilal Nichols, DT – Round 5
2019
- David Montgomery, RB – Round 3
It’s too soon to tell with the 2020 and 2021 draft picks, although I am ready to anoint Jaylon Johnson and Darnell Mooney as hits, while Cole Kmet and Trevis Gipson are trending in the right direction.
The point here is how can we trust Ryan Pace to make the right decisions regarding the next hire? If they decide to promote him, I can see that move as he would make a better President of Football Operations (have to create this position) than Ted Phillips currently is as team President. How though, can we be confident he’d hire the next great general manager and allow that general manager to hire the next great head coach? Seems easier to just part ways at this point.
Next. 4 coaches that would be better than Matt Nagy. dark
To wrap this up, here’s how the Bears can turn all of our Thanksgiving Days into very happy ones.
- Announce that Matt Nagy will not be the head coach of the Chicago Bears in 2022
- Announce that Ryan Pace will not be the general manager of the Chicago Bears in 2022
- Announce that the team is going to restructure their front office and create a President of Football Operations while removing those responsibilities from Ted Phillips in 2022