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There have been mixed reviews on Ryan Pace, depending on who you ask. Some think he's a great young GM. Other think he's been underwhelming, citing the moves for Trubisky, Kevin White, Mike Glennon, Leonard Floyd and others.

I know its early but now that his vision is starting to flourish AND now that he made the monster move to acquire Khalil Mack, I'm wondering what the the overall feeling is about him and the job he's done as GM?




Yes, I'm channeling my inner Kool Moe Dee

Let's see....

He came into a shit show, and made the right call to do a total gut and rebuild of the roster.
He was handcuffed with Fox, I suspect against his own wishes
He's drafted very well overall, including bigtime gems found in later rounds
He didn't reach or get impatient during free agency the prior 3 years while rebuilding, all deals were small with no cap hits to get out of them if they didn't work out
When he got to hire his own coach, he chose Nagy which looks like a home run
In that process, he managed to retain Vic Fangio as DC - a major coupe
He pulled off the Khalil Mack deal
We are now in year 4 of our rebuild, and we have a young, ascending team loaded with talent that's going to compete for a playoff spot this year.

I'd say he's done pretty well...

dplank wrote:Let's see....

He came into a shit show, and made the right call to do a total gut and rebuild of the roster.
He was handcuffed with Fox, I suspect against his own wishes
He's drafted very well overall, including bigtime gems found in later rounds
He didn't reach or get impatient during free agency the prior 3 years while rebuilding, all deals were small with no cap hits to get out of them if they didn't work out
When he got to hire his own coach, he chose Nagy which looks like a home run
In that process, he managed to retain Vic Fangio as DC - a major coupe
He pulled off the Khalil Mack deal
We are now in year 4 of our rebuild, and we have a young, ascending team loaded with talent that's going to compete for a playoff spot this year.

I'd say he's done pretty well...

+1 to this reply
I really liked how he didn't rush to spend gobs of cash in FA early, but let some of his picks develop, build up a good cap for a few years, and when he felt the team was ready to take the jump he went out and snagged a fantastic FA in Mack. That is excellent patience and long term planning. No GM hits on all their draft pics including #1s, but he has hit with a fair number of his total pics. I like him better than the past 30 years of GMs.

I think he has done a fantastic job overall, well noted by dplank. To me his one major gaff was overpaying to move up one spot to draft Trubisky when you had all 3 QBs still on the board. He gave up a lot of draft capital in that move and the Mack signing...but overall the team is light years ahead of where we were before Pace took over. If Mitchell progresses and the team keeps in the playoff hunt the next 3 years, it will all have been worth it!

People need to not criticize Pace for the Fox years. Most of that was all part of the rebuild plan. The plan was not to win during the Fox era. All of his FA signings were short contracts, to mid-level, or aging NFL players. The goal was to shed the poor players, keep the Bears in a good cap and draft position, and build through the draft;

In the last three years, he has drafted (in order);
2016 -- Floyd, Whitehair, Bullard, Kwiatkowski, Bush, Hall, Howard, DHC, Braverman
2017 -- Trubisky, Shaheen, Jackson, Cohen, Morgan
2018 -- Smith, Daniels, Miller, Iggy, Nichols, Fitts, Wims

As far as I can tell, there are only three players that are no longer on this team, and the bulk of those players are making significant contributions.

He went out and hired, what looks to be right now, a lock for Rookie Coach of the Year in Matt Nagy.

Once Pace knew he had his pieces, he signed in FA -- Robinson, Gabriel, Amukamara (re-signed), Goldman (Re-signed), Hicks (Re-signed), Burton, and the best defensive player in the league (that's Khalil Mack).

For a team that was slated to finish last in the NFC North this year, to now be sitting atop the that same division, and getting better every week.

I'd say that he's done alright.

If the Glennon signing was just to get Fox fired, then bravo Ryan Pace. Bravo.

AZ_Bearfan wrote:If the Glennon signing was just to get Fox fired, then bravo Ryan Pace. Bravo.

Not to get him fired. There was never an expectation that Fox was going to win. Fox was leaving after last year, no matter what happened. Pace was not going to risk having his star QB project mentored by John Fox. Glennon was not meant to come in and take this team to 10-6 and a WC berth. Never. Both Glennon and Fox were placeholders during the rebuild. Pace and McCaskey will never come out and say it publically, but that's what the strategy was.

a lot. my answer is a lot. If I had a sister, id let him date her.

edit: on the glennon thing, tbh id probably have rather just started sanchez anyway.

Jury is still out. He has done some very good things. The arrow is pointed skyward though.

dplank wrote:Let's see....

He came into a shit show, and made the right call to do a total gut and rebuild of the roster.
He was handcuffed with Fox, I suspect against his own wishes
He's drafted very well overall, including bigtime gems found in later rounds
He didn't reach or get impatient during free agency the prior 3 years while rebuilding, all deals were small with no cap hits to get out of them if they didn't work out
When he got to hire his own coach, he chose Nagy which looks like a home run
In that process, he managed to retain Vic Fangio as DC - a major coupe
He pulled off the Khalil Mack deal
We are now in year 4 of our rebuild, and we have a young, ascending team loaded with talent that's going to compete for a playoff spot this year.

I'd say he's done pretty well...

That says it extremely well.

The only things I'd add are:

Drafting Kevin White which was a huge bust. Beasley and Gurley were both right there. Can you imagine this offense with Gurley?

I'm also not impressed with Roquan Smith yet. I hope we see a few big games from him this year. The holdout and the iPad irritate me too.

In the moment, I was really frustrated with the one slot trade up for Biscuit and then also Pace not trading for Marcus Peters which I think the Rams got for a pittance. However I'm really hopeful on Biscuit and then if we traded for Peters I doubt the Mack trade would've happened. Obviously I'd rather have Mack.

But look where we were a year ago and look where we are now. Night and day. Pace has played an enormous part in the that.

This is a what have you done for me lately league...so
Going forward:
1) he has to find blue chip, NFL ready players in the first round. No more "high ceiling" gambles. So start scouting that sophmore class hard!

2) he needs to find viable replacements for for guys we won't be able to afford to keep. This is where those mid round draft picks are so crucial to hit on the right guys (what he's generally able to do, but needs to keep doing).

3) he needs to become an effective salesman, and sell where the Bears are going hard to guys he wants to keep. Might be able to keep a few guys we thought would become too expensive if they accept home town discounts.

I don't agree that his drafts have been amazing yet. I don't consider White, Floyd, Shaheen or Bullard to be significant contributors. He has hit on lower picks quite well but on two top 10 picks, AS OF NOW, have been misses. While we'll never know with White since his issues have been due to injury. He was considered a rough talent that needed polishing, not a come in and play day one player. Floyd was sold as our Mack before we had Mack, considering his accomplishments. He's not an elite pass rusher. Shaheen is another project that hasn't seen the field much. Overall he seems to be putting together quite the team, I just hate him using high picks on guys that need a year or two of seasoning.

Great comments (on both Pace's wins and his misses).

I'll add this, Pace has assembled a team that is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. For that alone he has my confidence.

I wasn't sold on Pace till this year. This year he finally got it. The Bears should be built on an elite Defense first and worry about the offense second.
I believe this because 1. we have one of the best QB's in the league to compete against in our division and 2. Our home field is outdoors, in winter and natural turf, which degrades as the season wears on.
Pace did 2 things right. He kept Fangio on, and he did what was needed to get the D a nuclear weapon and in doing so, instantly bought this team to a play off caliber level.
If Mack gets hurt, I will not fault Pace for trying.

I think what makes Pace valuable..he has a vision of what he wants and executes toward that team. It seemed the Bears have been patching the life raft previously..no real vision or team building concept.
Seems we have passed from that to a modern..rebuild..with last year being well behind us..

No GM will be 100% on draft day..injuries change things drastically..but we seem to have depth and strong starters..

Interesting season ahead..

There are a few bad moves but there isn't a GM alive that hasn't busted on a few choices. White was just bad luck, no one could have predicted the injuries. I hated letting Jeffery walk without any compensation, and a few other small things. But all in all he has done a great job.

I believe Fox was more pushed on him than him choosing the lame duck, so that makes me feel infinitely better.

He could still crash, Angelo had a hell of a start for a while before crashing like a MF'er. But the team looks poised to dominate.

Sugashane wrote: ...I hated letting Jeffery walk without any compensation ...

I sincerely believe that Jeffrey didn't want to be here. I was a HUGE Jeffrey fan and I loved what he brought BUT, I never thought he was consistently healthy enough to be a #1 receiver. He contributed tremendously in Philly but he's been hurt yet again.

As for the rest, this post sums it up quite nicely:

dplank wrote:Let's see....

He came into a shit show, and made the right call to do a total gut and rebuild of the roster.
He was handcuffed with Fox, I suspect against his own wishes
He's drafted very well overall, including bigtime gems found in later rounds
He didn't reach or get impatient during free agency the prior 3 years while rebuilding, all deals were small with no cap hits to get out of them if they didn't work out
When he got to hire his own coach, he chose Nagy which looks like a home run
In that process, he managed to retain Vic Fangio as DC - a major coupe
He pulled off the Khalil Mack deal
We are now in year 4 of our rebuild, and we have a young, ascending team loaded with talent that's going to compete for a playoff spot this year.

I was listening to the MNF broadcast last night where they were talking about Brady/Belichick, Brees/Payton, Rogers/McCarthy and the longevity of those duos. I feel like we might be on the front of that with Trubisky/Nagy and Pace gets all the credit for that.

When I evaluate his overall body of work, I give Pace top marks.

IotaNet wrote:

Sugashane wrote: ...I hated letting Jeffery walk without any compensation ...

I sincerely believe that Jeffrey didn't want to be here. I was a HUGE Jeffrey fan and I loved what he brought BUT, I never thought he was consistently healthy enough to be a #1 receiver. He contributed tremendously in Philly but he's been hurt yet again.

As for the rest, this post sums it up quite nicely:

dplank wrote:Let's see....

He came into a shit show, and made the right call to do a total gut and rebuild of the roster.
He was handcuffed with Fox, I suspect against his own wishes
He's drafted very well overall, including bigtime gems found in later rounds
He didn't reach or get impatient during free agency the prior 3 years while rebuilding, all deals were small with no cap hits to get out of them if they didn't work out
When he got to hire his own coach, he chose Nagy which looks like a home run
In that process, he managed to retain Vic Fangio as DC - a major coupe
He pulled off the Khalil Mack deal
We are now in year 4 of our rebuild, and we have a young, ascending team loaded with talent that's going to compete for a playoff spot this year.

I was listening to the MNF broadcast last night where they were talking about Brady/Belichick, Brees/Payton, Rogers/McCarthy and the longevity of those duos. I feel like we might be on the front of that with Trubisky/Nagy and Pace gets all the credit for that.

When I evaluate his overall body of work, I give Pace top marks.

This is a point I have made ad nauseum. Success in the NFL comes from consistency at the GM/HC/QB positions. If you have talent and staying power with all three of those positions, you have a puncher's chance of maintaining long-term success.

I haven't liked some of his moves... Kevin White #7 overall, trading up to draft Leonard Floyd, but the rest I have enjoyed. I will say this about Ryan Pace: when he feels strongly about a player/coach, he will do whatever it takes to go get him.

Trubisky
Mack
Keeping Fangio

And, really, I love what he's done for the culture of this franchise as well. I love seeing Urlacher back in good graces, Peanut on the sidelines during games, their media department is improving and giving fans greater access to the team, and he's renovated Halas Hall to have us at the top in terms of facility technology.

I'm fucking happy he's our GM. Hopefully this stays the course for the next 30+ years.

Here's the Pace grade in a nutshell. If he hit on most of his #1s, he'd be an A+. Which of his #1s--all top 10 picks--are quality NFL starters?

White... No.
Floyd... Jury still out.
Trubisky… Not yet.
Smith... Too early to tell.

Had he nailed a couple of these, he'd be the Mayor of Chicago.

Mikefive wrote:Here's the Pace grade in a nutshell. If he hit on most of his #1s, he'd be an A+. Which of his #1s--all top 10 picks--are quality NFL starters?

White... No.
Floyd... Jury still out.
Trubisky… Not yet.
Smith... Too early to tell.

Had he nailed a couple of these, he'd be the Mayor of Chicago.

So nothing outside of those 4 top 10 picks factors into his overall grade at all?

G08 wrote: ... really, I love what he's done for the culture of this franchise as well. I love seeing Urlacher back in good graces, Peanut on the sidelines during games, their media department is improving and giving fans greater access to the team, and he's renovated Halas Hall to have us at the top in terms of facility technology ...

This is as important as any personnel moves he might have made. Its huge.

the Bears have changed from "well let's see how they f up now" to a team that is actually fun to watch AND provides a definite shining light of hope on what the future will bring

and for that, I thank Ryan Pace and the moves he made to get them here

Good points for and against.

I am on record of not liking his draft or some of the guys we let go. By the way, we did try to win fast remember we signed a bunch of FA's to win right away. Just didn't work out. Mack fell into our laps but Pace(Thank God) mortgaged our future in some eyes for him. Balls move man, balls move. Easy decision for me but for him if it doesn't work he is unemployed. (Think he wasn't sweating a few bullets on that one)

BUT

We are 3-1 and getting better.

Pace for President if you ask me right now.

EricTighe wrote:... mortgaged our future in some eyes for him. Balls move man, balls move. Easy decision for me but for him if it doesn't work he is unemployed. (Think he wasn't sweating a few bullets on that one) ...

Not even close. The move is actually a no-brainer when you think about it and an easy call. If I'm thinking about it correctly, the way this works out is ....

* We gave up our 2019 first and sixth for Khalil Mack (Easy call)
* We swapped our 2020 first rounder for their 2020 2nd rounder. (If we continue to be good and they continue to suck, that might only be a 10 position drop)
* We swapped our 2020 third for their 2020 5th

That is HARDLY mortgaging our future, especially for a potential DPOY and defensive stud in his prime. This is an easy deal that any GM with brains would love to have pulled off.

IotaNet wrote:

EricTighe wrote:... mortgaged our future in some eyes for him. Balls move man, balls move. Easy decision for me but for him if it doesn't work he is unemployed. (Think he wasn't sweating a few bullets on that one) ...

Not even close. The move is actually a no-brainer when you think about it and an easy call. If I'm thinking about it correctly, the way this works out is ....

* We gave up our 2019 first and sixth for Khalil Mack (Easy call)
* We swapped our 2020 first rounder for their 2020 2nd rounder. (If we continue to be good and they continue to suck, that might only be a 10 position drop)
* We swapped our 2020 third for their 2020 5th

That is HARDLY mortgaging our future, especially for a potential DPOY and defensive stud in his prime. This is an easy deal that any GM with brains would love to have pulled off.

This ^^^ ALL. DAY. LONG.

Here is how it breaks out, making the assumption that the Bears win 10 games in 2019 (26th pick), and the Raiders finish with the 10th draft pick in 2020. Both of which are realistic;

2019 1st Round Pick = Khalil Mack. Instead of an unproven rookie OLB, we get the best pass rusher in the game.
2020 1st Round vs. 2020 2nd Round = 290 points in draft value
2020 3rd Round vs. 2020 5th Round = 102.5 points in draft value

If you add those two up, its less than what it cost to move from the 3rd to 2nd pick to draft Trubisky. The Bears gave up less than 400 draft value points to trade for the #1 OLB in the game, and the current leader for DPOY. I will take that every day of the week.

wab wrote:

Mikefive wrote:Here's the Pace grade in a nutshell. If he hit on most of his #1s, he'd be an A+. Which of his #1s--all top 10 picks--are quality NFL starters?

White... No.
Floyd... Jury still out.
Trubisky… Not yet.
Smith... Too early to tell.

Had he nailed a couple of these, he'd be the Mayor of Chicago.

So nothing outside of those 4 top 10 picks factors into his overall grade at all?

Clearly if he whiffed on every pick in rounds 2-7 for the last 4 years, he wouldn't get an A+ grade, would he? Give me a little credit.

Bears Whiskey Nut wrote:

IotaNet wrote:

EricTighe wrote:... mortgaged our future in some eyes for him. Balls move man, balls move. Easy decision for me but for him if it doesn't work he is unemployed. (Think he wasn't sweating a few bullets on that one) ...

Not even close. The move is actually a no-brainer when you think about it and an easy call. If I'm thinking about it correctly, the way this works out is ....

* We gave up our 2019 first and sixth for Khalil Mack (Easy call)
* We swapped our 2020 first rounder for their 2020 2nd rounder. (If we continue to be good and they continue to suck, that might only be a 10 position drop)
* We swapped our 2020 third for their 2020 5th

That is HARDLY mortgaging our future, especially for a potential DPOY and defensive stud in his prime. This is an easy deal that any GM with brains would love to have pulled off.

This ^^^ ALL. DAY. LONG.

Here is how it breaks out, making the assumption that the Bears win 10 games in 2019 (26th pick), and the Raiders finish with the 10th draft pick in 2020. Both of which are realistic;

2019 1st Round Pick = Khalil Mack. Instead of an unproven rookie OLB, we get the best pass rusher in the game.
2020 1st Round vs. 2020 2nd Round = 290 points in draft value
2020 3rd Round vs. 2020 5th Round = 102.5 points in draft value

If you add those two up, its less than what it cost to move from the 3rd to 2nd pick to draft Trubisky. The Bears gave up less than 400 draft value points to trade for the #1 OLB in the game, and the current leader for DPOY. I will take that every day of the week.

You also have to account for the cap space that Mack ties up v the net change in those picks.

I'm not saying that would change my mind about the whole thing, but that contract is a whopper. No argument about Mack's value thus far, but you have to factor in the contract.

Yep... Still Really like our young GM.

Pace came in with a mid & long term plan. I believe that he's executed his plan almost flawlessly.

People who choose to focus too much on the 1st round pick "misses", contract #'s & draft capital tend to be either devils advocate convos or fans with confirmation bias.

Yes.. The above listed are factors, of course...
It smacked of nitpicking then & I doubt anyone is still brave enough to stick to such arguments.

Sometimes we just need 1 person to vent our blame on. On the other hand though... It's times like these, that we need to give praise where it's due.

Pace has rebuilt & has turned this franchise around.
No~Brainerd.

Grade= A

The Marshall Plan wrote:

Bears Whiskey Nut wrote:

IotaNet wrote:

EricTighe wrote:... mortgaged our future in some eyes for him. Balls move man, balls move. Easy decision for me but for him if it doesn't work he is unemployed. (Think he wasn't sweating a few bullets on that one) ...

Not even close. The move is actually a no-brainer when you think about it and an easy call. If I'm thinking about it correctly, the way this works out is ....

* We gave up our 2019 first and sixth for Khalil Mack (Easy call)
* We swapped our 2020 first rounder for their 2020 2nd rounder. (If we continue to be good and they continue to suck, that might only be a 10 position drop)
* We swapped our 2020 third for their 2020 5th

That is HARDLY mortgaging our future, especially for a potential DPOY and defensive stud in his prime. This is an easy deal that any GM with brains would love to have pulled off.

This ^^^ ALL. DAY. LONG.

Here is how it breaks out, making the assumption that the Bears win 10 games in 2019 (26th pick), and the Raiders finish with the 10th draft pick in 2020. Both of which are realistic;

2019 1st Round Pick = Khalil Mack. Instead of an unproven rookie OLB, we get the best pass rusher in the game.
2020 1st Round vs. 2020 2nd Round = 290 points in draft value
2020 3rd Round vs. 2020 5th Round = 102.5 points in draft value

If you add those two up, its less than what it cost to move from the 3rd to 2nd pick to draft Trubisky. The Bears gave up less than 400 draft value points to trade for the #1 OLB in the game, and the current leader for DPOY. I will take that every day of the week.

You also have to account for the cap space that Mack ties up v the net change in those picks.

I'm not saying that would change my mind about the whole thing, but that contract is a whopper. No argument about Mack's value thus far, but you have to factor in the contract.

Excellent point. Anyone who thinks adding the largest contract ever for a ONE defensive player doesn't impact what you can do going forward is foolish. Think about what Green Bay would be if they had Mack? And yet, there are good reasons why they didn't offer more in trade, significant cap consequences among them.

I also agree that I'd still do it.