Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace held his end of year press conference, and we breakdown the big takeaways.
On Tuesday morning, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace held his end of season post-mortem — excuse me — press conference, in front of a frothy audience.
Pace opened up the session by stating they were not happy with the way the season went, and the regression that they experienced, but that they had the right pieces in place and would conduct an honest evaluation of the season to identify how to improve.
This is what you’d expect a GM to say after the disappointing season the Bears had. But it was his specific comments about Mitchell Trubisky that got fans on Twitter riled up.
What to make of QB comments?
Pace seemed to commit to Trubisky, stating he’s the unquestioned starter heading into 2020, much to the delight of Trubisky fans.
But fans shouldn’t overreact to that statement, as it was his comments about picking up his fifth-year option that was more telling. When asked, Pace stated they were not in a position to make that decision yet. But why? If he’s truly as committed to Trubisky as his initial comments seemed to suggest why not unequivocally state you’re picking up the option? After all, he did that with respect to Leonard Floyd at last year’s press conference. This seems like a case where actions will speak louder than words.
The comments seemed more designed to boost Mitch’s confidence, as it would have done Pace no good to denigrate him with no backup plan in place.
What did you say about Shaheen?
One of the most perplexing comments came about Adam Shaheen who Pace said has been hurt by a lack of experience.
The problem with that is that for most of the year, the tight end position was in shambles, and yet Shaheen couldn’t get on the field, and appeared to be a healthy scratch for the final quarter of the season.
Again, it’s unlikely Shaheen is on the roster next year even if Pace insists he’ll be at training camp, but it’s another case of Pace being effusive in his praise of one of his draft picks when a benign response would have sufficed.
On Leonard Floyd
The Bears previously picked up the fifth-year option on Floyd, but that is only guaranteed for an injury. So there’s a chance they don’t bring back the edge rusher who grossly underperformed this year.
However, Pace’s comments seemed like a vote of confidence in Floyd as Pace continuously reiterated that he was very happy with Floyd despite his lack of production.
Bottom Line
It’s hard not to get too fired up over comments at an end of year press conference, but there is an awful lot of time between now and the start of next season. Just like coaches sometimes speak in half-truths, so do GMs. So it’s distinctly possible Pace’s actions end up in direct conflict with what he said yesterday. And now we wait.