The Chicago Bears trade for Mitch Trubisky has remained a lightning rod of controversy. By and large the national pundits panned the move. Many felt the young North Carolina quarterback wasn’t worth a pick that high. Others couldn’t understand for the life of them why GM Ryan Pace felt the need to trade up from #3 overall to #2 in order to get him.
Some even went so far as to say that is the pick that gets Pace and everybody else fired. Seems a little harsh (and premature) to make such statements, doesn’t it? Since then local Bears columnists have clarified the situation to a degree. There were other teams vying for that #2 pick. Given their unclear intentions, Pace was faced with a choice. Stay put and risk his favorite QB in the draft getting swiped or pay the price to move up.
He chose the latter, and it’s a decision earning the admiration of another former GM, one who was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ron Wolf loved the Bears trade for Mitch Trubisky
If anybody knows about being aggressive in his pursuit of solutions at the quarterback position, it’s Ron Wolf. The longtime NFL executive made a career out of it. In 1978 he did the unthinkable when he took a black quarterback named Doug Williams in the first round out of Grambling State. Many thought he was nuts. A year later his team was in the NFC championship game.
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His far more high profile stroke of daring though didn’t come until 1992. He’d just become GM of the Green Bay Packers. Desiring a new quarterback, he explored the possibility of a trade with Atlanta for their young backup named Brett Favre. To that point he’d seen the field just twice, thrown four passes and seen two of them intercepted. The Falcons demanded a first round pick in return.
To their surprise, and that of many (many) others, Wolf agreed. He’d in fact been a fan of Favre’s since he came out of college and didn’t intend to lose his chance to get the young. So one can understand why Wolf wouldn’t even flinch upon hearing what Pace did when he spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I admire anyone with the gumption to [do that],” said former Packers GM Ron Wolf. “If you have the conviction, which they obviously do, that this is their savior . . . you go and get him. It takes intestinal fortitude and he displayed that. He has a belief in the player. And not only Pace, but the other people must be in line with that, too. If that’s your guy, you go do it.
“You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. They thought enough of [Trubisky] and got him. Lord knows they needed a quarterback, so they got one.”
No more messing around
Wolf had a front-row seat for watching how Chicago has mismanaged the quarterback position for decades. It’s a huge reason why his Packer teams were able to dominate Chicago during the 1990s. The Bears never had a quarterback even remotely close to Favre’s level. Part of the reason for that is simple lack of aggression. Every Bears draft pick at the position during that time could be considered “cheap.”
They just never really made a power play to get a guy they wanted. They were content to settle for whomever fell their way. That led to picks like Cade McNown and Rex Grossman. Now Pace is the first GM to take an active approach in fixing the position. He aggressively pursues Mike Glennon in free agency and then trades up for Trubisky and is shredded for it. Wolf understands what that’s like.
He also knows no expense can be spared to get the QB position right. Pace may not be popular now, but if either Glennon or Trubisky pan out it won’t matter.
