Chicago Bears: The hard part for Ryan Pace is about to begin

Ryan Pace has done his job. He’s improved the Chicago Bears roster to a point where they’re now considered among the best in the NFC.

Already people have begun to accept them as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. A rapid turnaround from the year before when they were 5-11 and consider still years away. Pace is in line to win Executive of the Year for his outstanding 2018 offseason that featured hiring Matt Nagy, drafting Roquan Smith, signing Allen Robinson, and trading for Khalil Mack. Pretty amazing work in the space of just nine months.

However, crazy as it may sound, this was the easy period for Pace. How is that possible? Mostly because he’s been able to navigate this rebuild with advantageous resources from high draft picks to large amounts of salary cap space. With these new developments, all of that is going to change. The Bears are limited in cap space and their draft currency is going to lack both in the number of picks and positioning for the next two years at least.

This is the true challenge the Bears GM will face. He got them to the top of the heap. Can he keep them there?

Bill Tobin and Jerry Angelo failed to keep their windows open

Getting to the Super Bowl is difficult. That much is obvious. However, nothing is harder than actually getting there and then getting back a second time. Opening the window is easy enough. Keeping it open for an extended period of time is another matter. The Bears have failed at that twice already in the Super Bowl era. They won the title in 1985 and never went back. They reached the big game in 2006 and never went back.

This is because their respective personnel guys, namely Vince Tobin and Jerry Angelo failed to keep the rosters strong enough to do so.

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Pro Bowl players drafted in the 6 years before 1985:

• Dan Hampton
• Otis Wilson
• Mike Singletary
• Todd Bell
• Jim McMahon
• Jimbo Covert
• Dave Duerson
• Richard Dent
• Mark Bortz
• Wilber Marshall
• Shaun Gayle

Pro Bowl players draft in the 6 years after 1985:

• Neal Anderson
• Donnell Woolford
• Mark Carrier

Pro Bowl players drafted in the 6 years before 2006

• Brian Urlacher
• Mike Brown
• Charles Tillman
• Lance Briggs
• Tommie Harris
• Nathan Vasher
• Devin Hester

Pro Bowl players drafted in the 6 years after 2006

• Corey Graham
• Matt Forte
• Henry Melton
• Johnny Knox
• Alshon Jeffery

Note the stark differences for each time period. The Bears had a far greater amount of success leading up to both of their Super Bowl appearances at locating talent in the draft than they did after. People will say at least Angelo was a little more even after 2006 but that’s misleading. Graham and Knox made their Pro Bowls as special teams guys, not their original positions on offense and defense. Only Forte, Melton, and Jeffery accomplished that.

This is the reality Pace is up against. Most people now view his team as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. They still have to prove that, but they aren’t the only ones. He will have to prove that he can succeed where his predecessors failed. Can he navigate the lower reaches of the draft and still come away with quality young talent? It won’t be easy. Especially not over the next couple of years.

The Bears have no 1st round pick in either of the next two drafts and their cap space will be limited as well. They’re a young team so they should be able to survive like that for now, but that could change if Pace isn’t able to keep the bottom from falling out.