The Chicago Bears are in the midst of a tailspin. They started 5-1 but are now 5-4. The hot Minnesota Vikings are up next. This team could end up at .500 going into the bye week with the Green Bay Packers looming on the other end just itching to deliver the kill shot. Fans are looking for people to blame. Most fingers are directed at head coach Matt Nagy. Others think it should go even higher to GM Ryan Pace.
The Nagy crowd has plenty to gripe about. His offense ranks 29th in the NFL for the second consecutive season and doesn’t look like it’ll get much better. His play calling is spotty and personnel management even more so. To say nothing of the overall lack of discipline his players are showing from week to week. Penalties, dropped passes, and blown blocking assignments. It’s all there.
Yet the Pace crowd has one noteworthy supporter.
Rodney Harrison played in the NFL for a long time. The former Pro Bowl safety won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. So he has a clear idea of what good teams are supposed to look like. The Bears, in his estimation, are overrated. Obviously, the big reason for that is the offense. While he does acknowledge Nagy holds a lot of responsibility because it’s his system, Harrison’s biggest gripe lay elsewhere.
One thing about offense in the NFL? It gets kind of difficult without blocking. The Bears don’t have any blocking. Their offensive line is atrocious and has been since last season. That doesn’t fall at the feet of the coach but the man who constructs the roster.
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Ryan Pace played it cheap up front and is paying for it
It’s hard to argue that point. Blocking is critical to success in the NFL. The Bears haven’t had a truly good offensive line since 2013. Part of the problem is they either have drafted poorly (Jerry Angelo) or haven’t made a significant enough investment in it. That is where Pace comes in. Since 2015, he’s had 11 picks in either the 1st or 2nd rounds. Just two of them have gone to the offensive line. That being Cody Whitehair and James Daniels.
He passed up Andrus Peat for Kevin White in 2015. He passed Laremy Tunsil for Leonard Floyd in 2016. Then he passed up Taylor Moton for Adam Shaheen in 2017. There were big opportunities for the Bears GM to fortify that line. Every time he couldn’t stop himself from scooping up a flashy skill position player with tons of athletic ability who hadn’t proven it enough on the field.
This past offseason he chose to keep the status quo, spending minimal money on Germain Ifedi and Jason Spriggs and grabbing two guys in the 7th round of the draft. In hindsight, Ryan Pace set the Bears up for a huge failure due to the likelihood of injuries and COVID-19 issues. That failure may not only cost the team this season. It might also cost him his job.
A similar fate that befell predecessors like Angelo.
