It’s less than a week and Chicago Bears fans don’t seem any less irate about what happened on Tuesday. George McCaskey, against the desires of many loyal supporters and even people within the organization, made the decision to retain GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. His reasoning was straightforward if somewhat difficult to follow.
The feeling was the team wasn’t in a terrible place despite the disappointing finish to the season. Players showed a lot of character to get through a difficult year including an ugly six-game losing streak. Not to mention the ongoing COVID-19 insanity. To reach 8-8 again and sneak into the playoffs despite all that was enough in McCaskey’s eyes to warrant one more chance.
Needless to say plenty of people didn’t agree with it.
In their eyes, this was McCaskey not having the willingness to be bold and try something new. Something to get his team over the hump. It was an acceptance of mediocrity. One winning record in six seasons under Pace. How can that be a cause for bringing him back for a seventh? People love to rag on Jerry Angelo. At least his team had three winning records and a Super Bowl appearance in his first six seasons.
Yet not everybody is lambasting the Bears chairman for his decision. Domonique Foxworth played in the NFL from 2005 to 2011 for some quality organizations like Denver and Baltimore. He understands the value of continuity at the top. He also believes Pace did a better job building the roster than people give him credit for. It’s just a matter of that one pesky mistake he made back in 2017.
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Ryan Pace can build a roster but he needs a quarterback
In the interest of fairness, what Foxworth says is true. In terms of roster building? Pace is far from the worst GM in the NFL. He constructed a defense that has finished in the top 11 four seasons in a row. The offense isn’t without its own quality talents from Allen Robinson to Cody Whitehair, James Daniels, Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet, and even Sam Mustipher. The problem is this isn’t the 1960s. Teams can’t thrive in today’s NFL without a quarterback.
That is where Ryan Pace has endured his greatest failures. Signing Mike Glennon for $45 million was the first indication the young GM might not have a grasp on finding actual talent at the position. That was quickly followed up with his signature move. Trading up to #2 overall in the draft to select Mitch Trubisky. Passing on Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes is likely something he’ll never live down. As Foxworth said though, picking a quarterback is a crapshoot.
Maybe with Nagy at his side this time, Pace can finally get it right.
It won’t be easy. Most of the big names appear out of the Bears’ reach. They don’t have a lot of draft picks at their disposal and are short on money as well. To say nothing of the 30 free agents they have to juggle including Robinson. This is going to be Pace’s biggest challenge. Finding that elusive QB while keeping the roster strong enough to stay competitive in 2021. If he pulls it off? Then yeah he deserves to stay.