People are looking for who to blame for what the
Chicago Bears have become. Once again another lopsided team. One with a great defense but nothing remotely resembling a functional offense. A lot of fingers get pointed at the quarterback or the head coach or the offensive line or etc. The reality is situations of this magnitude tend to go straight to the top. That falls at the feet of GM Ryan Pace.
For all the great things he's done with that defense, there is no denying he is the primary component to this offensive offense. Plenty of his decisions have played a role. Keep in mind this isn't something that suddenly began this offseason. It was a culmination of things that built up over literal years. People are just seeing the dam finally break over the past month.
Going over them all would take thousands of words. So instead, here are the five primary blunders that got the Bears into this nightmare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibaJG4ZHzOY&ab_channel=ScottFisher
Ryan Pace torpedoed the Bears offense with these 5 moves
One could say this was the move that pretty much set the tone. Pace's first-ever draft choice. Having just moved on from veteran Brandon Marshall, a known locker room malcontent, the Bears GM felt he needed to find another weapon for
Jay Cutler who could play opposite
Alshon Jeffery. White had exploded for over 1,400 yards at West Virginia his final year. Then he ran a blister 4.35 at the combine at 6'3.
He was a tantalizing prospect. That is why nobody blinked when the Bears took him #7 overall in 2015. Unfortunately, the problems started before he even stepped on the field. A leg fracture knocked him out for his entire rookie season. Then in 2016, it happened again after just a few games. In 2017, a hard hit fractured his shoulder blade. The kid was clearly snakebit and became one of the biggest busts the franchise has ever had.
This is the one move that a lot of people tend to forget because of what happened a year later (we'll get to that). Going into the 2016 draft, the Bears were hoping to add some help to their pass rush.
Pernell McPhee couldn't stay healthy and
Willie Young was a poor fit for the scheme. They ended up drafting Leonard Floyd out of Georgia, an uber-athletic linebacker with tons of upside but not a proven track record.
https://twitter.com/Matt__Weston/status/1318694049939918848
Many forget that Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil, whom many projected to go in the top 5 that year, had slipped down the board due to a video of him smoking marijuana being released right before the draft. He ended up going to the Dolphins at 13th overall. He made his first Pro Bowl last season in Houston and appears on track for another this year. Imagine him on the blind side of Nick Foles instead of Charles Leno.
Drafting Mitch Trubisky
You knew it was coming. Everybody knows the reality of the NFL. It's hard to win in this day and age without a quarterback. Credit to Ryan Pace. He understood that and made sure to take his shot when the opportunity was there in 2017. There were three choices. Deshaun Watson of Clemson, Patrick Mahomes of Texas Tech, and Mitch Trubisky of North Carolina. All three had high marks in the draft community. Watson was the consummate winner. Mahomes was the rocket-armed gunslinger. Trubisky was a well-rounded late-bloomer.
In the end, Pace fell in love with Trubisky. He saw visions of Drew Brees in the kid. Saw the leadership traits and competitiveness. Unfortunately, that was the wrong choice. After some initial hope in 2018 with a Pro Bowl alternate honor, the Ohio-native leveled off in 2019 before significantly regressing. His limitations became all too obvious. Enough to where he was finally
benched in September. Meanwhile, Mahomes and Watson are thriving elsewhere.
Hiring Matt Nagy
It was hard not to love the move at first. Nagy was coming from the Andy Reid coaching tree. One that has produced a lot of success. Guys who have won the Super Bowl. Reid is one of the best QB developers in the NFL on top of that. Nagy was a former quarterback himself. Everything about the move was logical. Then after his offense had an impressive start in 2018, people became convinced.
However, everybody knows the NFL can catch up to you fast. When the Green Bay Packers held the Bears to just three points in the 2019 opener? That was the first major red flag. It's all gone downhill since. Nagy's offense ranked 29th last season and
ranks 29th this season. His scheme seems rigid, overly complicated, and lacking imagination. It's becoming apparent his half a season as a play caller wasn't nearly enough proof the Bears should've needed to make him their guy to develop Trubisky.
Playing it cheap on the OL in 2020
A lot of things went into why the offensive line fell apart so fast this year. Part of it is the long-term deals Ryan Pace gave both Charles Leno Jr. and
Bobby Massie. While they seemed warranted at the time, the dismal performance in 2019 revealed it may have been a mistake. With four of the five starting jobs locked down due to contract or draft status, the Bears convinced themselves replacing the offensive line coach would make everything better.
https://twitter.com/BrandonThornNFL/status/1316452250286518274
This is a big reason why they signed
Germain Ifedi and
Jason Spriggs to minimal deals and why they bypassed offensive linemen in the draft until the 7th round. Juan Castillo didn't need any additional help even though injuries are always a thing in the NFL and COVID-19 threatened to ravage locker rooms. Sure enough, both hit the Bears at the same time. Now they're left with whatever they chucked out onto that field in Tennessee.
Instead of throwing $70 million at
Robert Quinn, they could've tried to keep Cornelius Lucas or signed Brian Winters. Instead of drafting
Cole Kmet with their top pick, who they refuse to use, they could've taken Lloyd Cushenberry or Damien Lewis who are already standout rookie blockers. Pace's constant negligence of the line finally caught up to him.
