Chicago Bears: Ryan Pace Having Success at All Levels
By Erik Lambert
Chicago Bears fans can be week-to-week sort of lot. One week they love everybody. The next week they hate everybody. That’s just how it is.
Perhaps while the team is coming off a win might be the best time to send some credit, limited though it may be for now, to GM Ryan Pace. People still haven’t quite grasped the smoking wreckage of a team he inherited in 2015. It was old, banged up, rudderless and without hope. Anybody who thought there could ever be a quick turnaround was foolish themselves. It was always going to be an arduous task to rebuild.
Why? It wasn’t just the talent pool he had to refill. It was also the appalling void of leadership they’d lost with the exits of mainstays like Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Olin Kreutz and Charles Tillman. For a man who was and still is the youngest GM in the NFL, that’s a herculean task. After three offseasons people are ready to burn the house down with just 11 wins in 38 games. However, the signs are growing that Pace’s efforts are starting to bear fruit.
Pace has built a strong, young core from every avenue
Nobody gave the Bears a prayer to win in Baltimore last week, but the Bears dominated most of the game. Sure they narrowly won in overtime but that was mostly due to their own mistakes. The players who led the way were all Pace acquisitions. Indeed the roster he’s constructed is impressive not just in terms of the overall talent, but where it’s originating from.
In a word: everywhere.
1st Round:
- Leonard Floyd
- Mitch Trubisky
2nd Round:
- Eddie Goldman
- Cody Whitehair
4th Round:
- Tarik Cohen
- Eddie Jackson
5th Round:
- Jordan Howard
- Adrian Amos
Undrafted:
- Cameron Meredith
- Bryce Callahan
Free Agency:
- Akiem Hicks
- Danny Trevathan
- Josh Sitton
Sure there have been misfires along the way. That was inevitable. If a GM is going to rebuild his team as quickly as possible he has to take some calculated risks. Not all of them are going to work out. Pace hasn’t hide from those blunders. He’s still learning but it’s impossible not to see the progress. This Bears team has beaten two good opponents despite a myriad of mistakes. They should’ve beaten another in Atlanta and had a shot to do the same to Minnesota.
It’s a talented group and it’s starting to come together. Pace has tried to tell everybody to trust the process. That may not sit well with the instant gratification crowds of modern day but if Cubs fans could do it, why not the Bears? This team has a chance to be good in the near future. They could very well be one more good offseason away.