Ryan Pace trying to sell Chicago Bears fans on positivity

Before another debacle of a game in their season finale on Sunday, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace took to the airwave to tout sell fans on the positives rather than the negatives of a 3-13 season.

I guess this state of the team address during the holidays by front office personnel is a tradition in Chicago now. After Chicago Bulls VP John Paxson spoke on the state of the team on Christmas, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace did something similar on New Year’s Day.

Before another debacle of a game played by the Chicago Bears on Sunday, general manager Ryan Pace took to the airwave to speak positively about the team. He sounded like the dysfunction of the past two years didn’t exist, and concentrated on the positives.

Of course, the Bears went out and laid another egg, losing to the Minnesota Vikings 38-10.

In terms of head coach John Fox’s future, Pace sounded an awful lot like he wasn’t going to lower the boom on him.

“None of us are happy with our record and this season has been disappointing for all of us. Like John said we do see progress and as we’ve talked about we’ve played a lot of younger players and with a lot of them we like what we see. I think right now we have the most starts by rookies and second-year players in the league and there’s an advantage to that.

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“We know we need to play with better consistency and I think that will come as these guys gain experience and we need to add more firepower to this roster. One thing I really want to stress is that in order to develop these younger players you really need a coaching staff that’s on board with preparing them and playing them and I think John’s done a good job in leading our team and his staff in assisting that development. I also think he’s done a good job instilling the right culture that we want in the locker room and those aren’t small things.”

That did not sound like someone about to fire Fox, did it?

To hammer the point, the Bears have a press conference set for Wednesday with Fox and Pace. I don’t see Fox being there if the Bears fire him. Speaking of that press conference, if Pace is the man in charge, why is Fox always with him, practically speaking for him? And why does Pace akwats quote Fox? Maybe the announcement is Fox to be the new general manager?

Fox is still employed because of his resume. He did some great things in Carolina and Denver, but he is in Chicago now. How about he concentrate on Chicago?

Pace spoke on the fans’ patience during the team’s struggles. “We aren’t building a team to play in flashes. We’re building a team to get to a point where there’s consistent and long term winning. I think sometimes this takes a little bit of growing pains as your young core is kind of developing. But I completely understand that patience in the NFL is very difficult. I get that. But we’re on the right course and again it’s important for us to add more talent to the roster this offseason, which we will. We understand we need to prove it on the field. That’s fair. And honestly, I’m anxious to share the success with our fans when we get to that point.”

It’s nice that Pace wants to build a consistently winning team, but going through 9-23 to get there is asking a lot. The empty seats at Soldier Field over the past several games show that the fans agree.

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The Chicago Bears are entering one of their biggest offseasons in franchise history. Ryan Pace needs to show he is in control and that he can make the proper moves to bring a winner back. If not, then Fox won’t be the only one on the chopping block.

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