Ryan Pace has to feel pretty good these days. His Chicago Bears are one of the most talented teams in the NFL. They’re coming off a 12-4 season which included a division title. He hired Matt Nagy, the reigning Coach of the Year and traded for Khalil Mack, one of the best defenders in football. Yet as brilliant as those moves have played out, there is one the GM still isn’t getting enough credit for.
The drafting of Mitch Trubisky.
Look nobody is ready to say the young quarterback is a star. He has work to do before he gets there. However, he’s already proven to be at least a functional NFL player. More than most of the starters the Bears have trotted onto to the field over the past eight decades. What Pace really deserves credit for though more than just the quality of the player himself is the conviction he showed to get him.
People still don’t quite grasp how groundbreaking it was when Pace went up to get Trubisky in 2017. It wasn’t just a shock due to the circumstances. It was a shock because no previous Bears GM had ever done it before. Prior to that moment, the history involving QB investment was pretty crummy in the Super Bowl era
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
- Jim Finks – Did not draft a QB above the 6th round for seven years
- Bill Tobin – Drafted Jim Harbaugh with his first-ever pick
- Rod Graves – Never drafted a quarterback
- Mark Hatley – Traded back before drafting Cade McNown
- Jerry Angelo – Traded back before drafting Rex Grossman
- Phil Emery – Did not draft a QB above the 6th round
Ryan Pace was willing to shoot his shot into the unknown
Most of the time the Bears tried to sneak around the idea of drafting quarterbacks high. Finks traded a 1st round pick for Mike Phipps in 1978. That was a failure. Hatley traded a 1st round pick for Rick Mirer in 1997. That was a disaster. Angelo traded for Jay Cutler after Grossman flopped. Emery decided to re-sign Cutler to a new deal rather than even attempt to draft a quarterback. This led to bypassing names like Russell Wilson, Derek Carr, and Nick Foles.
Pace recognized that the best chance for the long-term success of his franchise was the draft. Look at the teams that have won a championship over the past decade. Of the 10 winners, only two of the teams had quarterbacks who weren’t drafted by them (2015 Broncos and 2009 Saints).
It’s not a coincidence that Finks set the stage for the 1980s dominance when he drafted Jim McMahon. Pace recognized that the odds of finding his guy via free agency, trade, or later in the draft were minuscule. If he was going to have a legitimate chance of finding a difference-maker, he had to get him early. So the Bears moved up to ensure they got their guy.
Love or hate the pick of the player if you want. Just be sure to respect Pace for having the guts to make it at all.
