Bears: A critical offseason coming up for Ryan Pace

With the offseason just a few weeks away for the Chicago Bears, it’s clear that 2020 will be a very critical offseason for General Manager Ryan Pace.

With the Chicago Bears officially eliminated from playoff contention, this means that as soon as the calendar turns to January, it will be time for the Bears to begin re-tooling the roster and making a few upgrades in order to get the team to be competitive once again in 2020.

The man at the helm of all this will be Ryan Pace, who is ready to begin his sixth year being in charge of the Bears. To this date, Pace has only has one winning season in Chicago, despite having five years to build his team.

Pace will be in charge of figuring out the Bears quarterback situation. His fingerprints are still all over Mitch Trubisky, who he selected instead of Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes, both of whom were clearly more proven than Trubisky during the 2017 draft process.

Then there’s the offense, which will have a new starter at right guard. The Bears can veteran Kyle Long in the offseason and save $8.1 million dollars. Other veterans that could likely be cut are Prince Amukamara and Taylor Gabriel. Then there’s the tight end position, that will need to be revamped again due to the fact that Adam Shaheen and Trey Burton have been injured and failed to make an impact.

On defense, Pace will need to figure out what to do regarding Amukamara’s replacement. Younger defensive backs such as Kevin Tolliver and Duke Shelley are on the roster. However, Shelley has mostly played in the slot as a rookie while Tolliver has shown potential whenever he’s started. However, there’s no knowing how Tolliver will hold up as a starter for a full season.

The reality is that Pace will need to retool some key positions on the roster to get the Bears back to being Super Bowl contenders in 2020. It will all start with the quarterback position. Trubisky will still be on the roster in 2020 but Pace needs to find a quality veteran like Case Keenum to come in and compete with Trubisky.

Then finally, Pace will need to figure out a way to extend key players such as Eddie Jackson and Allen Robinson, both of whom are in line to sign contract extensions. However, this will need to be done at the expense of some players such as Tarik Cohen. While Cohen’s contract expires at the end of the 2020 season, there’s a major chance that 2020 ends up being his final year in Chicago.

Overall for Pace, 2020 will be his final year to get things right with the Bears. He’s got a major offseason ahead of him and he’ll need to be smart about the way he goes about things in order to have a chance at ensuring that the Bears can make one final Super Bowl run with the core they currently have.