Why Ryan Pace failed as Bears GM

Black Monday certainly lived up to the billing for the Chicago Bears. The team parted ways with head coach Matt Nagy, as expected, but threw a bit of a curveball when they also announced general manager Ryan Pace would be fired as well.

Pace had been the team’s GM since 2015 after spending years with the New Orleans Saints in their front office. Under Pace, the Bears compiled a record of 48-65 in the regular season and 0-2 in the postseason. They only finished above .500 once and consistently underperformed, particularly on offense, during his tenure.

Though there were pockets of success and some draft gems that were uncovered, Pace had some glaring misses and concerning tendencies that ultimately caught up with him. We could spend hours detailing every single move Pace made, but here are the main reasons why he failed as the team’s GM.

Lack of early collaboration

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For all the talk of “collaboration” this past year at Halas Hall, it may come as a surprise that Pace didn’t adhere to that word early on in his tenure. It was most notable in 2017 when he chose to select Mitchell Trubisky as his quarterback of the future.

The Trubisky pick could be it’s own category, but teams do miss on their picks from time to time. The bigger issue with the Trubisky pick is that he failed to collaborate with the rest of the front office and coach John Fox. Last year, Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune detailed Pace’s decision-making prowess in selecting Trubisky. In short, Pace chose to keep the Trubisky pick close to the vest, leaving many people in the room stunned when the pick was sent in.

Pace was paranoid about information leaking out and could have been saved from himself. Fox wanted Deshaun Watson and while there is controversy that has surrounded him this past year, you can’t deny the impact he would have had early on for the Bears. It feels like Pace didn’t learn this until much later in his tenure. How many other early decisions could he have workshopped with his staff before pulling the trigger?

Surrendering draft capital

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Sometimes, general managers feel the need to trade draft capital for their “can’t-miss” prospect they’ve been salivating over for months. But when it happens far too often and you’re losing draft picks year over year, something’s gotta give.

Pace’s calling card has been trading future draft capital to move up in that year’s draft. He becomes so fixated on a player that he feels he needs to do everything in his power to move up and secure him before anyone else does. The most glaring example of this issue was – you guessed it – the Trubisky trade.

The Bears moved up one spot in the 2017 NFL draft to nab Trubisky in one of the most unnecessary trades in NFL history. For all intents and purposes, Pace got played by thinking other teams were zeroing in on his guy. So he parted with multiple picks to move up just one spot in the order. Not only was Trubisky a bust, Pace lost valuable picks in that draft, one of which wound up turning into Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara of the New Orleans Saints. But it wasn’t just the Trubisky trade.

Pace parted with a future second-round pick to trade up for Anthony Miller in 2018. The next year, they said goodbye to a future fourth-round pick to jump up and take David Montgomery. Pace did it yet again with Justin Fields and Teven in 2021, though the jury is still out on those two picks. He’s the guy in college that will continue to open up new credit cards and deal with the repercussions at a later date. That’s not good business in the NFL.

The new general manager is going to have one of the oldest rosters in the league when they take over. Pace left them a mess of aging veterans and few draft picks to use to restock them.

Overcorrecting his mistakes

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I always saw Pace as someone who would do anything to correct a mistake on his team, whether it was through the draft, free agency, or both. When it was clear the Bears had no quarterback in 2016, he bid against himself twice when he signed Mike Glennon for $18 million guaranteed and traded up to draft Trubisky in the same offseason.

That year, the receiving group was occupied by practice squad players. Pace responded by signing Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel to multi-year deals in the offseason, while also trading up for Anthony Miller. When they released Cody Parkey after the miss in the playoffs, Pace signed a number of kickers as free agents, while also trading for another, Eddy Pineiro, who became the team’s primary kicker that season.

This was a trend throughout his entire tenure. Pace overpaid for veterans and traded up in the draft, throwing everything he had at a problem. How else do you justify paying Jimmy Graham $16 million over two years while also drafting Cole Kmet with your first pick in the draft? It’s because the tight end position was historically bad the season before and Pace threw the kitchen sink at the problem, especially when he had nearly a dozen on the roster.

It was most evident, however, when he signed Andy Dalton to a $10 million deal, while still having Nick Foles on the roster after acquiring him a season earlier in a trade. Then the Bears traded up for Justin Fields in the 2021 NFL Draft, making the deepest quarterback room they’ve ever had.

Sometimes it’s good to be well prepared after things go awry. But Pace took it too far and spent vast amounts of dollars and draft capital, just trying to stabilize a poor position group. Sometimes it worked, often it didn’t.

Neglecting the offensive line for too long

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Prior to the 2021 NFL draft, Pace had drafted just one tackle (Tayo Fabuluje) in six drafts. He was also picked in the sixth round and didn’t last on the team long. Pace relied on below-average tackles to anchor the offensive line during his tenure with Charles Leno Jr. and Bobby Massie. Though the two players were okay, their struggles still came out too often, giving fans heartburn on every dropback.

The interior of the line seemed solid for the most part, with Cody Whitehair and James Daniels anchoring the guard and center positions. But without strong tackle play, the offensive line wasn’t going to hold together for very long. Pace rewarded both Leno and Massie extensions during their time, only to see them struggle far too many times to have consistent success.

The problem will hopefully be rectified moving forward with the selections of Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom. But it was too little, too late for Pace. Part of getting the quarterback position right is to surround him with an effective offensive line. Pace didn’t do that nearly enough.

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