Coming into 2020, it looked like Ryan Pace was basically against the wall. The Chicago Bears GM saw the reality for what it was. His misfires in the 1st round had finally come back to haunt him. Leonard Floyd was not the star pass rusher he'd hoped for. Mitch Trubisky is not a franchise quarterback. Those mistakes left the team in a state of uncertainty for this coming season, along with his job status.
With only one winning season since he took over in 2015, Pace has to believe that this year is make or break. If he doesn't deliver a playoff run, the odds are he might be out of a job. Under such circumstances, it would be so easy for him to have an all-in mentality. Use every conceivable resource to produce a winner in 2020 and damn the future.
To his credit, Pace hasn't let that happen. He's done something that is so difficult for a man in his position to accomplish. He found a balance. He managed to be aggressive enough to clearly improve his football team from where they were last season while setting them up with long-term flexibility in 2021 and beyond.
Ryan Pace will have loads of draft and cash assets next year
Think about this. The Bears went from Adam Shaheen to Jimmy Graham at tight end, Floyd to Robert Quinn at outside linebacker, and Trubisky to Nick Foles at quarterback. Those are three notable improvements at three vital positions. The only notable starter he lost in this process was Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and nobody would call that a huge hit to the defense overall. In fact, it will serve to help them in 2021, adding to their coffers of four compensatory picks. If this holds, Chicago will have 11 total selections in the draft next year.
Not to mention they might be able to add even more if they decide to trade down at some point in the 2020 draft.
Then there is the money situation.
The Bears are tight against the cap as of now, which limits their ability to spend big on any players they may want. That should change next year. In addition to an expected spike in the overall cap due to the new CBA, Pace will have plenty of easy ways to clear more space.
If Graham, Foles and Trey Burton were cut, it would collect almost $35 million in cap space for just $4.75 million in dead money. They could also use the post-June 1st designations on tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie. That would yield another $17 million in space with just $3.6 million in dead money. That's a total of around $42 million in extra cap for just five moves. None of them on players considered part of the Bears' core.
This could give the Bears anywhere from $60-80 million in cap space. Together with 11 picks in the draft, they'd be well-equipped for a massive retooling effort should things not go their way in 2020.
