Ryan Pace got it wrong. Everybody knows it by this point. Picking Mitch Trubisky was a bad call in hindsight. Revisionist historians would like you to believe he never should’ve even been in the discussion. They’re lying. Trubisky was ranked #1 on many boards. Pace took his shot and whiffed. Yet a lot of people can’t seem to let it go. Why is this? One reason is the decision to move up from #3 to #2 in a trade with San Francisco.
A move that cost the Bears two 3rd round picks and a 4th round pick. People just couldn’t understand it even at the time. Was Pace really that afraid Trubisky wouldn’t last one more pick? As it turns out, yes. Confirmation of this came courtesy of Hue Jackson during an interview for the Pass It Down podcast. The former Cleveland Browns head coach talked about that infamous 2017 draft.
It turns out there was a strong tug-of-war on what to do with the #1 pick.
Jackson was adamant the team take Texas A&M pass rusher Myles Garrett. Somebody he considered to be a generational talent. However, there was a large contingent in the Browns front office who wanted Trubisky. Not just because he was a top QB prospect but also because he was an Ohio native. It would’ve been a tremendous story for the fans to bite into. Jackson didn’t find out it would be Garrett until the day before the draft. That’s how close it was.
Before the 2017 draft, then-Browns coach @huejack10 was dug in on Myles Garrett as the No. 1 overall pick. The front office wanted Mitchell Trubisky. He took extreme measures to plead his case. From Ep. 45 of the Pass It Down podcast, with @fatnatsilver… pic.twitter.com/Fmkr8NBOJb
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) March 31, 2021
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This is where the trade comes back into play. Don’t forget the Browns also held the #12 pick in that 1st round. There were serious rumblings they might try to move back up from that spot to grab their quarterback even after taking Garrett. Given what Jackson said about Trubisky, this offers a degree of confirmation on why Pace felt the need to move up from #3 to #2. He felt the danger from Cleveland was high enough that he didn’t want to miss out on his guy.
Ryan Pace shares something in common with Jackson
He’s employed longer than he probably should be despite past mistakes. Jackson had gone 1-15 his first season and then 0-16 that 2017 season. Yet Browns ownership still felt compelled to bring him back in 2018 hoping continuity would get the team over the hump. It was a considerable shock since coaches with one win in two years don’t usually survive. Jackson didn’t do much with it, going 2-5 before being fired midseason.
Ryan Pace is in a similar situation. He just concluded the fifth of six seasons where his team failed to record a winning record. The Bears still haven’t won a playoff game. It was also the fourth-straight season where they failed to produce an offense ranked higher than 21st. All of it stemming from his inability to settle the quarterback position. Every move he’s made there has fallen flat.
Trubisky was merely the biggest of his blunders.
Yet here he is again in 2021, being granted another chance to take a swing at the position. Will he repeat history with a trade up into the 1st round? Will he make another attempt at Russell Wilson? Maybe he has something else in mind. Right now the only solution he’s offered is Andy Dalton. Does he really think that’ll be enough with the third-toughest schedule in the NFL looming this season? The upcoming draft is going to determine many things.