Chicago Bears News: Will Ryan Pace get another shot to run a team?

The Chicago Bears are in the middle of a rebuild thanks in part to former general manager Ryan Pace.

He famously traded up one spot in the 2017 NFL Draft to select quarterback Mitchell Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes.

Pace traded away draft picks like a kid swapping baseball cards.

Although, sometimes his trades worked out. Giving up two first-round picks for Khalil Mack helped the Chicago Bears win the NFC North.

Other times it did not like giving up a future second-round pick to move up and take wide receiver Anthony Miller.

Pace had a horrible draft record in the first round. Roquan Smith was his only real hit. Hopefully, Justin Fields turns out to be his best draft pick. Otherwise, you can credit him for Kevin White and Trubisky as his draft busts. He only receives partial credit for Leonard Floyd because he never reached his potential with the Bears.

Ryan Pace’s reckless spending also put the franchise in a salary cap crisis that his replacement, Ryan Poles, had to clean up.

Yet, Pace landed on his feet in Atlanta after he was fired by the Bears at the end of the 2021 season. He just received a promotion from the Falcons.

Terry Fontenot is still in charge of Atlanta’s front office, but Pace did have an influence over the Falcons’ roster last season.

That makes you wonder if Pace will get another shot to be a general manager.

Failed general managers rarely get a second chance to run a front office.

Pace could be one of those exceptions as he is 46 years old.

While the Chicago Bears went 48-65 in his seven seasons running the team, he did win the NFL Executive of the Year in 2018. The Bears made the playoffs twice under his stewardship.

In his first three seasons, the Bears went 14-34, but a lot of that time was spent cleaning up the mess his predecessor Phil Emery left behind–who ironically is now his co-worker in Atlanta.

While Pace had some notable draft busts (like drafting Adam Shaheen in the second round), he did have a decent track record.

He also had some major hits in free agency. He brought in Allen Robinson and Akiem Hicks who you can make an argument for being the best free agent signings in team history.

The concern any team should have if they give Ryan Pace another shot is his epic failures led to the Bears’ demise.

Pace had three major failures that left the Chicago Bears franchise in the gutter.

He never could find the right head coach. To be fair, he was highly encouraged by ownership to hire John Fox. Fox treated his time in Chicago like it was a semi-retirement.

Then he hired Matt Nagy to replace Fox and that turned out to be a disaster.

It started out all well and good with a 12-4 record in 2018. It was all downhill after Cody Parkey’s double-doink cost the Bears a playoff victory.

Nagy tried to shoehorn Trubisky into his offense that Mitch never developed into the quarterback Pace envisioned. Trubisky deserves some blame for never being more than a really good runner. He could not read defenses and was not mentally tough. Pairing him up with Matt Nagy’s rigidity did not help.

Nagy was also an awful play caller and he had to give up those duties twice.

Pace could never solve the Bears’ eternal quarterback problem. He gave Mike Glennon $18 million and then made his infamous trade for Trubisky during the same offseason.

He bided against himself to get Nick Foles and Andy Dalton (Foles’ contract is an example of Pace creating unnecessary salary cap problems).

His parting gift of drafting Justin Fields might work out, but it will not be because of Pace. Fields’ growth was delayed because Nagy refused to tailor his offense to Fields’ strengths, and he wanted to play Dalton over Fields.

Also, Ryan Pace never adequately built up the offensive line and it came apart in 2021. He did draft Cody Whitehair and James Daniels, but he also never took a left tackle in rounds one through five. In fact, he only drafted eight offensive linemen in seven drafts.

Charles Leno Jr. and Bobby Massie were just okay as the tackles, but Pace could have made upgrades over both and never did. Well, he did think Teven Jenkins could be a left tackle, but a back injury scrapped that plan.

Those three areas he failed to adequately address are critical to a team’s long-term success. That is why the Bears were mediocre at best under Pace and that is why it is highly unlikely the next team he might run would do any better.