Beating the New York Giants 29-3 may not have meant much in terms of the 2021 season, but it was still a nice feeling for Chicago Bears fans. A feel-good moment they haven’t had many of this season. At the same time, not everybody came out of that game looking too good. GM Ryan Pace most of all. If people were seeking evidence as to why he should no longer keep his job after this season concludes, all they had to do was watch that 60 minutes of football.
It was probably one of the worst quarterbacked games of the entire 2021 season. Most of that was courtesy of the Giants and their starter, Mike Glennon. Bears fans should remember him. The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers backup that Pace handed $45 million in 2017 to be their starter. A guy who then lasted four games and played so poorly he was benched in favor of Mitch Trubisky. By the look of things, he has somehow gotten worse since then.
It was bad. Really bad.
Glennon finished 4-11 for 24 yards and two interceptions. He actually finished with -10 net passing yards due to the four sacks he took. An all-time low for Giants quarterback play. Yet Pace’s hard day did get much better on the Bears’ side of things. Andy Dalton, his prized free agent signing back in March, didn’t look overly good either. He managed just 173 yards passing with a TD and an interception despite the defense giving him four extra opportunities via turnovers.
That sums it up right there. Pace’s two biggest acquisitions at quarterback via free agency across his tenure. Both proved to be massive disappointments. As were Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles. Maybe Justin Fields will be different but there isn’t enough evidence yet to suggest he is a future franchise quarterback. This GM had every opportunity and then some to fix the quarterback position and build a good offense. He failed.
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Ryan Pace had seven years and gave the Bears little in return
People can talk about his late-round successes and the strong defense he was able to build. That is commendable. The problem is that didn’t do much for them in the win column. Pace has one winning season in his tenure and zero playoff victories. Such a legacy isn’t even that much better than the man he replaced, Phil Emery. In the end, his roster ended up the same way as Emery’s back in 2014. Old, overpaid, and lacking depth.
The collapse may not have been as ugly, but it was a collapse nonetheless. As always, it comes back to the quarterback position. Ryan Pace took more swings at it since taking over than any GM in the modern era. Two big free agent signing, a trade addition, and two 1st round draft picks. He at least deserves credit for recognizing the problem. Sadly like his predecessors, he wasn’t overly good at pinpointing the right guy for the job.
Here is hoping Fields can alter the trend.
It may not come in time to save Pace though. People will ask questions about where it all went wrong for him in the event he’s fired next week. The truth is it isn’t difficult to figure out. The one-two punch of drafting Trubisky and hiring Nagy in a space of 10 months was the killing blow. Nobody knew it at the time. Those failures merely make decisions like Glennon and Dalton look that much worse.
