#2. Growth despite 3-12 record.
Pace: “I think anytime you go somewhere new you anticipate a lot of change to the roster and that’s really taken place over the last two seasons for us. We came into this season with the thought that hey we’re going to be younger and we knew we were going to play a lot of new players and that obviously got accelerated with some of the injuries we’ve sustained this year. But with those injuries, they kind of are what they are. Now I look at the positive; it’s us playing a lot of younger core players. It’s seeing them grow into major contributors.”
Possible Meaning: Pace went on to mention players such as Jordan Howard, Leonard Floyd, Nick Kwiatkoski and Eddie Goldman, then talked about improvement of chemistry between the specialists. It’s clear he’s very excited about the future of the young players. That being said, he directly references getting younger and playing new guys as being part of the plan, that’s an indication of the complete roster rebuild the Bears have had to undergo since Phil Emery. Pace doesn’t really sound as if making the playoffs in 2016 was ever really expected anyway.
