Ryan Pace was handed a tough situation when he took over the Chicago Bears organization in 2015. He had the oldest roster in the NFL. No superstars were present to build around. What he had was a bunch of inflated contracts, a fractured locker room, and less-that-adequate draft resources. It would take a lot of work to clean it all up and start from scratch. The man deserves some respect for being willing to take on that job.
Nobody must've felt a greater sense of relief and joy when the Bears finally broke through in 2018 to win the NFC North. They had the best defense in the league and an offense that appeared to have an assortment of weapons. Unfortunately, the joy didn't last long. His once formidable team has collapsed to a 4-6 record and virtually out of the playoff picture before the month of November was even over.
This has caused people to shine a light on him once again. Was last year just a fluke? Is he as good a GM as some have argued? Perhaps this is the right time to look at the entire picture. Rather than get bogged down in the details let us focus on the most important stuff. Namely three categories.
How many Pro Bowler has he produced?
What have his head coaches accomplished?
Did his 1st round picks pan out?
Those three things more than any other typically determine whether a GM is doing his job right or not. Looking over things, the truth isn't overly kind to Pace.
Ryan Pace doesn't have a ton to hang his hat on
Pro Bowlers under his watch:
- Kyle Long - inherited
- Josh Sitton - free agent
- Charles Leno - inherited
- Mitch Trubisky - drafted
- Cody Whitehair - drafted
- Akiem Hicks - free agent
- Khalil Mack - trade
- Kyle Fuller - inherited
- Eddie Jackson - drafted
- Tarik Cohen - drafted
Of the 10 Pro Bowl players that the Bears have produced during Pace's tenure, three of them had nothing to do with his personal evaluation. They were holdovers from the previous regime under Phil Emery. After that comes the free agents. To date, Pace has only signed two players who have achieved this honor in Sitton and Hicks while the blockbuster trade for Khalil Mack produced another. That accounts for 60% of the Pro Bowl output. As for the draft?
Pace has made 32 picks in his tenure and four have received that honor. One of them (Trubisky) is proving to be a one-year wonder. For all the success he's had at finding solid players, he hasn't found enough difference-makers in the one part of the offseason that matters most.
Head coaches:
- John Fox - 14-34 record (highest-ranked offense of 15th)
- Matt Nagy - 16-10 record (highest-ranked offense of 21st)
Fox was a crusty old coach who'd been around for a long time. He rebuilt the Bears' locker room culture and instilled the team with a sense of pride they'd lost. Unfortunately, he also didn't have the same edge he'd possessed 10 years prior. Discipline on the field was a constant issue and so were rampant injuries. Combine that with a lack of imagination and it's not hard to see why he was eventually fired. He just didn't win enough.
Nagy, on the other hand, has a better winning percentage but that gets somewhat canceled out by the humiliating reality that Fox's offensive output in his second season (2016) is significantly better than what Nagy's has accomplished in 2019. He was hired to win games, yes. However, his other primary job was to produce a viable offense. He has failed in that and failed spectacularly.
1st round picks:
- Kevin White (2015) - Played 14 total games in four seasons
- Leonard Floyd (2016) - Has 18.5 sacks in 48 games
- Mitch Trubisky (2017) - 86.2 career passer rating in 35 games
- Roquan Smith (2018) - 199 tackles in 25 games
The best way to describe this list is one outright bust, two major disappointments, and a possible emerging star. There was really nothing Pace can be blamed for with White. He had no prior history of health issues and the Bears could not possibly have predicted the receiver would develop such a snakebitten existence. Floyd and Trubisky? That is 100% on him. Both were top 10 selection and Pace traded up for both of them.
The Bears could've gotten a proper left tackle in 2016 with Laremy Tunsil still on the board. Somebody who was far more proven at his position that Floyd was as an edge rusher. As for Trubisky? Everybody has heard the story a thousand times. Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson are there. Pace goes with Trubisky instead. That is something that will follow him for the rest of his career.
This is the one inescapable fact. By the end of this season, it's likely that Pace will have presided over four losing seasons in five years. Did he inherit a mess? Yes. Did he do a good enough job to fix that mess? After looking at the wider scope of his work? The answer has to be no.
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