Chicago Bears: How Ryan Pace picked his moment well

Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace has caught a lot of flak over the past year, but vindication may finally be at hand and it’s thanks to his own hard work.

One of the things that separate average general managers from the good ones isn’t just knowing where the good players are in a given offseason. It’s knowing where they will be in the next two or three offseasons. Being able to see the landscape one or two years ahead is an invaluable tool that can often dictate how aggressive or conservative a GM is in a given year.

Seeing how active Pace was over the past few months in upgrading the Bears roster, it lent some strong hints at what his thoughts might be of the landscape in 2019. He willingly gave up both his 1st and 2nd round picks in the draft next year. A surprising turn for a man who’s been known to avoid giving up such high choices in trades before. Granted, those deals landed him Khalil Mack and Anthony Miller but there may have been another motivation behind it.

It’s possible he knew what was coming up in 2019 and felt comfortable sacrificing those picks because it gave him a better chance to land impact players. Based on comments from those around the league from Matt Miller of Bleacher Report, he may have had the right idea.

Chicago Bears may not be missing much with the 2019 draft class

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Every year Miller asks around the NFL community for their thoughts and impressions of an upcoming draft class. Normally a few names get singled out as the core of special talents teams should be watching. However, it seems there wasn’t quite as much enthusiasm surrounding this 2019 class. In fact, some even declared it nothing special.

"But then he said something that stuck: “Man, this class is frustrating. Isn’t it?”And really, it is kind of frustrating.The 2019 class will leave us all wanting more. Those of us in the media would love for star quarterbacks, game-breaking running backs and superstar wide receivers to dominate the rankings—because those positions bring in readers, listeners and viewers……One general manager put a stamp on this class when he told me: “You know, this isn’t the year for superstars, and it’s not a great draft class, but there are a lot of starters in the trenches and some very good DBs. For our team, that’s great.”"

That’s a fairly clear statement. Indeed a glance ahead reveals that many of the quarterbacks and wide receivers in this class lack any sort of star power. Most of the talent is concentrated on the defensive side of the ball, specifically defensive tackle. It’s hard to get excited about that sort of thing. Defensive tackles don’t typically sway the balance of power in a division or a conference.

This means a team like the Bears, who have no 1st or 2nd rounder, don’t have to feel like they’re missing out on much. They can feel free to focus on filling out the depth chart with young reserves with upside while the core of the team is already set with guys like Mack and Miller. If this was part of the plan by Pace, it was quite the masterstroke.

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