Outrage Thread: March Edition

[dplank]

Fun rant, but not reflective of what's actually happening with the team.

That's where I wound up too

The whole the Bears don't want to win - or don't want to spend money just isn't backed up by the facts

Granted the whole spending money wisely or drafting smart - or the high profile hires/signings being right? WHOLE different discussion

But just because Robert Quinn sucks doesn't mean we aren't paying him alot

Thirded (is that a thing?). The idea that the Bears don't want to win is just silly. George is a fan. Not just because he says it, you can tell it's true by his emotions. He wants to win badly, and I bet he wants to win one soon for mom really badly.

[IE]

Yeah agreed - I reject the notion that the owners don't want to win. Winning increases their wealth.

If there wasn't a salary "band" with minimum and max and the owners regularly were the lowest paying team in the league, that might provide more evidence. But there really isn't any evidence they don't want to win. On the contrary I imagine Virginia's win clock is ticking loudly.

[Mikefive]

I don't know who said the Bears don't want to win. Or that the Bears don't spend money. I haven't seen that in this discussion.

The point was more subtle than that. Of course they WANT to win. But is that their top priority? The assertion was that it's not. Of course, I WANT a Porsche 911. But am I arranging my priorities to make it happen? Not really. Does that mean I don't WANT one? No, it doesn't.

I know many around here don't like the "blame ownership" view. But what happens at the top and how they run things has a dramatic impact on the success of a company. If you look at the record of the Bears since the McCaskeys took over and the championship team they inherited faded away, the team's success has been pretty horrible. I don't know how you don't hold management responsible for that.

[dplank]

They don't really do the football stuff though. They've given plenty of money towards the goal, including an expensive over haul of Halas Hall and an open checkbook for any free agent any of our GM's have ever wanted.

They ARE responsible for not hiring good GM's though. So they get dinged for that in my book. I hated the Emery hire and I hated the Pace hire although I kinda fell in love with Pace after the Mack deal. I thought he executed the rebuild well and had on poised for a SB run and it wasn't clear at that time how badly he blew that Mitch pick. Now I'm back to hating on Pace simply for his inability to get us the franchise QB we so desperately need.

[karhu]

Thirded (is that a thing?). The idea that the Bears don't want to win is just silly. George is a fan. Not just because he says it, you can tell it's true by his emotions. He wants to win badly, and I bet he wants to win one soon for mom really badly.

[ON EDIT: With apologies to MikeFive, who just made many of the same points, more tastefully.]

That's fine, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. George could (and, I think, does) want to win the way I wanted to date Charlize Theron or replace Bun E. Carlos. If there was a time for me to try and become Hollywood royalty or get chummy with Cheap Trick, it was a long time ago; by now, ya might as well say that those things aren't really important to me, and never really were. Other things are.

George has fewer excuses than that. If he cared about the football side of things, well, he's had every opportunity to master them. We all see the need for more football wisdom in Ted Phillips's role. Well, Phillips is doing his job exactly right, as far as ownership is concerned. George, though, could--I'd argue that he should--be the guy who focuses Pace's attention, who brings decades of perspective to his oversight of Pace's performance.

Heck, even a pissed-off, out-the-door Jim Finks left us with a draft that produced more and better contributors in one year than Pace has managed for his entire career. George should be using that kind of institutional memory to help Pace develop and execute a winning strategy. He should certainly be holding his performance to a high standard. But he's not. Because that sort of thing is off his radar.

What's that about the third generation?

[Arkansasbear]

Thirded (is that a thing?). The idea that the Bears don't want to win is just silly. George is a fan. Not just because he says it, you can tell it's true by his emotions. He wants to win badly, and I bet he wants to win one soon for mom really badly.

[ON EDIT: With apologies to MikeFive, who just made many of the same points, more tastefully.]

That's fine, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. George could (and, I think, does) want to win the way I wanted to date Charlize Theron or replace Bun E. Carlos. If there was a time for me to try and become Hollywood royalty or get chummy with Cheap Trick, it was a long time ago; by now, ya might as well say that those things aren't really important to me, and never really were. Other things are.

George has fewer excuses than that. If he cared about the football side of things, well, he's had every opportunity to master them. We all see the need for more football wisdom in Ted Phillips's role. Well, Phillips is doing his job exactly right, as far as ownership is concerned. George, though, could--I'd argue that he should--be the guy who focuses Pace's attention, who brings decades of perspective to his oversight of Pace's performance.

Heck, even a pissed-off, out-the-door Jim Finks left us with a draft that produced more and better contributors in one year than Pace has managed for his entire career. George should be using that kind of institutional memory to help Pace develop and execute a winning strategy. He should certainly be holding his performance to a high standard. But he's not. Because that sort of thing is off his radar.

What's that about the third generation?

I think he wants to win and he TRIES to win. He just doesn't have the skills and ability to do so.

It's like a buddy I race with. He wants to do good, he trains hard but he just doesn't have the talent or the ability to make himself suffer enough to get good.

I think that's where ownership is. They want to win and they try to do what they think is best, but they are simply wrong and haven't been able to get the right people in the key places to succeed.

This is going to sound crazy, but this off season, we might be seeing the team turn a page into the modern NFL. The Bears team we all loved for smash mouth defense and controlling the game with the run, can't have prolonged success now days. The rules simply favor the offensive side of the ball. Letting Fuller go sucks. But at least they seem to realize the need to try and land Wilson, or Trent Williams or to pair Goodwin with ARob. I at lease see that maybe the light has come on and they are actually trying to fix this thing. Still going to be hard without a QB, but at least they are moving in the right direction. Maybe????

[thunderspirit]

I can't believe I'm about to defend the Bears owners, GM, and head coach, but I am.

I think the Bears ownership wants to win. I just don't think they necessarily define it by championships -- I think they define it by being competitive most years. That means the odds of them buying into a "tank" year or two as a great idea are virtually nonexistent.

At the same time, I think Bears fans often have an unrealistic expectation of the team, from the owners on down to the coaches. The days of building a team like Jim Finks did are long since gone; free agency is a huge part of that, but so is the salary cap. You wanna compare Pace to Ozzie Newsome? Fair. And Pace absolutely falls short of that -- just like pretty much every other GM in the NFL. Pace sits at slightly above average in my estimation. (Your mileage may vary.)

You wanna disagree with the choices Pace has made? Fine. You wanna suggest there's been no plan behind them? That's inaccurate.

The plan was to try and capitalize on the rookie QB contract. The Fuller contract came to a head because the plan was to try and win the whole thing before the last year of his deal. Same with Hicks. Trubisky was drafted with the hope he'd develop the decision-making to match his physical traits. It was a swing for a home run. Same hope was in place when teams drafted Patrick Mahomes, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh Rosen. Mahomes and Allen developed -- home runs. Trubisky, Darnold, and Rosen didn't -- strikeouts instead of home runs.

I keep thinking back to the Coach of the Year award Nagy won in 2018. I'll readily admit part of it was Fangio running the defense, but with 2021 eyes it's abundantly clear that part of it was winning 12 games with Trubisky at QB. I don't know that he's a great coach, especially in light of the last two seasons, but I don't think he's a terrible one either. (Again, your mileage may vary.)

I can understand wanting to change GMs and coaches. That's our prerogative as fans. I personally don't want to change for the sake of changing -- that's a Lovie Smith approach to offense and it's a recipe for disaster.

[dplank]

JMO, but I think you are very, very much short changing Vic / defense in that 2018 take. It's not like they had a good year or something, they had a HISTORICALLY GREAT year. That defense was on par with 1985/1986. It absolutely CARRIED that team. That's why the double doink hurt so bad, I honestly believe we could have won the SB that year.

We beat the Bills that year 41-9 and the offense had 190 yards total.
We beat the Rams that year 15-6, Mitch threw for 100 yards and turned the ball over 3 times.

We led the league in sacks and turnovers, setting the offense up over and over and over again. I think the members of this board could have comprised the offense and we would have gone 10-6. I give Mitch near zero credit for that season, Nagy only slightly more because his red zone gadget shit worked most of the time because no one was prepared for it. Vic and that Defense get 95% of the credit.

And despite these points, I don't disagree with you about Nagy - I don't think he's terrible at all. Leadership counts, he's strong there. And his offensive mind is good, he just can't dumb it down to his talent level and hasn't had an NFL caliber QB to run it.

[The Marshall Plan]

The 2018 team wouldn't have been worth the spit off my shoe if it wasn't for that defense. That was Fangio's team and not Nagy's team.

If only we had a QB and a kicker that year. Sigh.

Mitch wasn't anything special that year. When you back out the impact of the TB game where he had 6 TDs and 0 INTs, his stats are not that great at all. The TD : INT ratio goes from 24 : 12 to 18: 12. Ugh.

For a year two QB I'm guessing that's not that bad, but a lot of guys could've QB'd that team and been successful.

[Grizzled]

Pace's moves in free agency are backing the Bears into a corner with the draft. It's now a necessity that the team draft a QB who has the potential to become a starter by next year. Ifedi/Bars might be the starting RT but the team will have to look at drafting one and also a LT. They need a slot receiver and if they insist on not playing Pierce/Nall, they need someone behind Montgomery; Cohen is not this guy, he should be used more as a gadget guy. CB depth will have to be looked at.

[IE]

I don't really like Nagy. I USED to, and for a while defended him because Mitch looked like such a deer in the headlights most of the time it made me feel sorry for what Nagy ended up signing up to do (develop a guy who couldn't do it).

But geez... Nagy gave us all the "2.0" nonsense and had incredible in-game brain farts where he completely abandoned the run and did other really stupid stuff. "But he's new and he'll grow into the HC role!" ... how can that be used when he was brought in for his "experience" in developing Wentz (and Foles)? and Mahomes and being the "OC" of the vaunted KC offense? He can't have it both ways. His teams have been unprepared and struggle to execute. Like I just posted elsewhere, I'm suspicious of his ability to be a Head Coach - his ability to strategize, assess talent, teach, coach, direct meaningful practice, prepare for games and call games. Where is there any evidence he can do all that?

OK maybe we can blame the QB. OR the Oline during part of last season. But there seems to be a TON of evidence that Nagy is in way over his head. Regardless of what the players say about him... it wouldn't be the first time a beloved coach was actually bad.

[wab]

I don't really like Nagy. I USED to, and for a while defended him because Mitch looked like such a deer in the headlights most of the time it made me feel sorry for what Nagy ended up signing up to do (develop a guy who couldn't do it).

But geez... Nagy gave us all the "2.0" nonsense and had incredible in-game brain farts where he completely abandoned the run and did other really stupid stuff. "But he's new and he'll grow into the HC role!" ... how can that be used when he was brought in for his "experience" in developing Wentz (and Foles)? and Mahomes and being the "OC" of the vaunted KC offense? He can't have it both ways. His teams have been unprepared and struggle to execute. Like I just posted elsewhere, I'm suspicious of his ability to be a Head Coach - his ability to strategize, assess talent, teach, coach, direct meaningful practice, prepare for games and call games. Where is there any evidence he can do all that?

OK maybe we can blame the QB. OR the Oline during part of last season. But there seems to be a TON of evidence that Nagy is in way over his head. Regardless of what the players say about him... it wouldn't be the first time a beloved coach was actually bad.

There's actual film out there proving that Nagy is a pretty brilliant play designer. Where he's struggled is getting his players to execute those plays, and knowing when to use them and when to not use them during the flow of a game.

It's on record that he can at least identify/evaluate talent at the QB position.

I don't love him, but I'm not ready to set him on fire in the street like some are.

[IE]

Yeah - I've definitely seen the clips and analysis showing he's a clever play designer. For sure. I'm not saying he's a total bum. But Head Coach is so much more than that.

[AZ_Bearfan]

I agree, Nagy has done some dumb shit. I'm hoping that focusing on HC duties and not calling plays with his face buried in the play sheet half the game will help him with things like clock management and which hash your kicker likes. He's got a lot to prove this season.

[Umbali]

Man at some point when I drink too much I get tired of keeping up on every single post on this thread.

Making a bad pick doesnt mean you dont want to win. The year we got Mitch...the only thing I knew about Mahomes was what I read in our War Room forum which wasnt glowing. I did see Watson play a lot, however I didnt feel like we should get a QB. My dumb ass wanted Soloman Thomas ..then we traded with SF and got Mitch and they got Thomas who then sucked lol.

I guess my point is I cant fault a GM for picking wrong on a QB.. If you are honest that shit happens all the time. Does anyone remember the whole debate between Manning or Leaf?

GMs are human and make bad decisions. I get it.

Where I do take have an issue is, the Bears need a legit football person hiring the GMs etc Phillips has to go

[Yogi da Bear]

You can fault the GM pick when you yourself made the right pick like I did. In fact, screamed it at the top of my lungs day after day after day. lol

Mahomes talent was quite apparent in college. In fact, his college highlight tape looks much like his pro tape.

I wanted him so bad.

[dplank]

You can fault the GM pick when you yourself made the right pick like I did. In fact, screamed it at the top of my lungs day after day after day. lol

Mahomes talent was quite apparent in college. In fact, his college highlight tape looks much like his pro tape.

I wanted him so bad.

I agree 100%. He also missed on Watson, he had a 67% chance of success and failed, it’s absolutely fair to fault the GM, that’s his job. You were screaming for Mahomes while I was screaming for Watson, fun times. The risk/reward wasn’t there and many of us knew it - even if it had worked it was a poor bet. Of course it’s true GMs make mistakes, it’s also true that depending on the size and/or frequency of those mistakes that GMs get fired for them. The Trubisky blunder is an all time miss, career defining and should have resulted in his termination. The fact that he’s spent 7 years giving us Glennon, Trubisky, Daniel, Foles, and Dalton is undeniably bad. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t done some good things, of course he has, but the most important one he’s failed at completely and had plenty of opportunity to get it right.

[Burl]

Maybe there was more to the Watson evaluation (or lack of interest) than his play on the field.
I mean, they apparently never even interviewed him and you'd have to wonder why. Now you look what he's tangled up in... maybe the Bears have some top notch investigators. Glad Im not a fan of the Texans. What. a. mess.

[Yogi da Bear]

Maybe there was more to the Watson evaluation (or lack of interest) than his play on the field.
I mean, they apparently never even interviewed him and you'd have to wonder why. Now you look what he's tangled up in... maybe the Bears have some top notch investigators. Glad Im not a fan of the Texans. What. a. mess.

To me, there's something fishy about that whole mess. Why were they all massage therapists? Was this something that was actually provided by the Texans to ensure a happy ending? Notice the one lawyer is representing so many of them? All? He seems like a real scumbag like the Porn lawyer. Notice also that no criminal charges have been filed. "His genitals touching their bodies" sounds like it could be a hand job to me. I also find it strange that so many articles coming out of Texas are quick to slight the statements of Watson's lawyers and are quick to poo poo any relationship between the girls' lawyer and the team, before any relationship has even been established. I just don't trust any media at this point in time. There just seems something fishy in Denmark. Not saying there actually is. But everything, including the timing, just stinks.

[Burl]

I know how you love a good conspiracy Yogi.

There's a sort of old-deadspin take on the situation if you look around the web, where it's purported that there's a whole underworld of "massage therapists" who market themselves quite provocatively on Instagram, and that Watson apparently regularly partook of this sort of service. For a young guy with his kind of money, in a high profile position, it was only matter of time before someone sought to capitalize.

Now, that's not my take necessarily, and there could also be an in-between scenario where there's an element of legitimate, professional massage therapists who he tried to take advantage of, and was agressively trying to pressure women into things they didnt want to do thinking they were the other type. Or he could have simply sought out actual massage therapists (Im hearing 26 now) to come to his place an coerce.

So you have, best case scenario: Watson was buying instagram uh... professionals and is just being blackmailed.
Or, he's a legit predator in some way.

Regardless, neither is a good look. I think he's in a serious heap of trouble and am just glad we didn't push that trade. What a mess that would've been.

[Otis Day]

If he just wanted someone to play with his junk why didn't he just hire a high class prostitute and she could have role played as a physical therapist/massuese?

[GSH]

If he just wanted someone to play with his junk why didn't he just hire a high class prostitute and she could have role played as a physical therapist/massuese?

for people with a rapist mindset its more about weilding the power over someone who ISNT willing, sadly. This is a guy who has likely never been told NO his whole life. You think his ego would be cool with just straight up PAYING for it? If true, dude is an idiotic animal and I hope he gets to feel the full weight of the law.

Im not saying Watson is guilty yet, but it doesnt look good by any stretch of the imagination. He'll have his day(s) in court im sure.

[DevilsProspect]

You can fault the GM pick when you yourself made the right pick like I did. In fact, screamed it at the top of my lungs day after day after day. lol

Mahomes talent was quite apparent in college. In fact, his college highlight tape looks much like his pro tape.

I wanted him so bad.

I agree 100%. He also missed on Watson, he had a 67% chance of success and failed, it’s absolutely fair to fault the GM, that’s his job. You were screaming for Mahomes while I was screaming for Watson, fun times. The risk/reward wasn’t there and many of us knew it - even if it had worked it was a poor bet. Of course it’s true GMs make mistakes, it’s also true that depending on the size and/or frequency of those mistakes that GMs get fired for them. The Trubisky blunder is an all time miss, career defining and should have resulted in his termination. The fact that he’s spent 7 years giving us Glennon, Trubisky, Daniel, Foles, and Dalton is undeniably bad. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t done some good things, of course he has, but the most important one he’s failed at completely and had plenty of opportunity to get it right.

To be fair, 9 times other teams either passed up a chance to select Maholmes or trade up for him. Watson 11 other chances. (Practically a 3rd of the league)

Hindsight is always 20/20. God I wish one of them was selected by the bears. But at the time Trubisky seemed like a good pick. Several times he looked to have it. I still feel Nagy completely screwed him in development, would he be on Maholmes/Watson level? Likely not. But don’t think Nagy helped his development. Even so, we all have seen early first round picks flame out much worse than Trubisky. Think it was unfair to compare Trubisky to two generational QBs. I think this put undue pressure on the situation.

As we saw, he was capable of as much as Any QB currently on the Bears roster and certainly more than any QB in the past. Sure he wasn’t a HOF QB. But better than any that the bears ever had (maybe cutler could be an argument but he didn’t do anything real special).

Now what? What would it have hurt to add a solid OT instead of Quinn? Or possibly a WR? What would I have hurt to surround your “franchise QB”with everything needed to be successful? Why not call plays that the QB could be successful? Who on the offense did the Bears really invest in on that side of the ball to help Trubisky? Robinson? He was a high risk, high reward FA coming off a torn ACL at the time. An overpay for Graham who was on the cusp of retirement? What linemen? Several that got cut not because they were salary dumps, but because they just didn’t make the cut? The Bears (pace) continued to overpay for guys like Quinn, Danny T, Skrine, among others on defense while neglecting the offensive side of the ball 3 to 1.

Nagy destroyed Trubisky with his own ego. Pace destroyed Trubisky with his lack of surrounding cast.

Sure, fine. Trubisky isn’t Maholmes or Watson. He didn’t need to be. He needed to be the Bears franchise QB. Now the Bears are worse off then when they had him. It’s only my opinion, but I’m sticking to it. Let’s see if we are stuck on watching a revolving door for another 10years of Vet castoffs and bust mid round QB busts. Because I am sure they will win enough to keep them out at a chance of the next generational QB.

[Boris13c]

I am so sad about how year after year the Bears do something to give us hope then disappoint with sometimes spectacular failure ... Pace and Nagy looked like a winning team of management and coaching that could end decades of frustration, but shot their load in just 1 almost magical season ... now they can't seem to even appear competent

perhaps after their upcoming 5 win season their replacements will give us at least 1 magical season before they too fail their way out of town ... it is an ugly frustrating cycle but appears to be the only way the Bears know how to operate

[dplank]

I agree 100%. He also missed on Watson, he had a 67% chance of success and failed, it’s absolutely fair to fault the GM, that’s his job. You were screaming for Mahomes while I was screaming for Watson, fun times. The risk/reward wasn’t there and many of us knew it - even if it had worked it was a poor bet. Of course it’s true GMs make mistakes, it’s also true that depending on the size and/or frequency of those mistakes that GMs get fired for them. The Trubisky blunder is an all time miss, career defining and should have resulted in his termination. The fact that he’s spent 7 years giving us Glennon, Trubisky, Daniel, Foles, and Dalton is undeniably bad. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t done some good things, of course he has, but the most important one he’s failed at completely and had plenty of opportunity to get it right.

To be fair, 9 times other teams either passed up a chance to select Maholmes or trade up for him. Watson 11 other chances. (Practically a 3rd of the league)

Hindsight is always 20/20. God I wish one of them was selected by the bears. But at the time Trubisky seemed like a good pick. Several times he looked to have it. I still feel Nagy completely screwed him in development, would he be on Maholmes/Watson level? Likely not. But don’t think Nagy helped his development. Even so, we all have seen early first round picks flame out much worse than Trubisky. Think it was unfair to compare Trubisky to two generational QBs. I think this put undue pressure on the situation.

As we saw, he was capable of as much as Any QB currently on the Bears roster and certainly more than any QB in the past. Sure he wasn’t a HOF QB. But better than any that the bears ever had (maybe cutler could be an argument but he didn’t do anything real special).

Now what? What would it have hurt to add a solid OT instead of Quinn? Or possibly a WR? What would I have hurt to surround your “franchise QB”with everything needed to be successful? Why not call plays that the QB could be successful? Who on the offense did the Bears really invest in on that side of the ball to help Trubisky? Robinson? He was a high risk, high reward FA coming off a torn ACL at the time. An overpay for Graham who was on the cusp of retirement? What linemen? Several that got cut not because they were salary dumps, but because they just didn’t make the cut? The Bears (pace) continued to overpay for guys like Quinn, Danny T, Skrine, among others on defense while neglecting the offensive side of the ball 3 to 1.

Nagy destroyed Trubisky with his own ego. Pace destroyed Trubisky with his lack of surrounding cast.

Sure, fine. Trubisky isn’t Maholmes or Watson. He didn’t need to be. He needed to be the Bears franchise QB. Now the Bears are worse off then when they had him. It’s only my opinion, but I’m sticking to it. Let’s see if we are stuck on watching a revolving door for another 10years of Vet castoffs and bust mid round QB busts. Because I am sure they will win enough to keep them out at a chance of the next generational QB.

I just will never understand this need to excuse the Trubisky miss. It is as epic a draft miss as has ever happened in NFL history, and people just want to make excuses for it and for the player. Bottom line, we needed a QB in that draft and two generational talents were available, Pace chose the 3rd option and missed on changing our franchise forever. Mitch had 4 years to be the player we hoped he would be, but never developed and ended up "4 and out" and signing a 1 yr 2.5M backup contract in effing Buffalo. This is an all time bungle.

[DevilsProspect]

I just will never understand this need to excuse the Trubisky miss. It is as epic a draft miss as has ever happened in NFL history, and people just want to make excuses for it and for the player. Bottom line, we needed a QB in that draft and two generational talents were available, Pace chose the 3rd option and missed on changing our franchise forever. Mitch had 4 years to be the player we hoped he would be, but never developed and ended up "4 and out" and signing a 1 yr 2.5M backup contract in effing Buffalo. This is an all time bungle.

It’s not an excuse. I just don’t think he was as bad as advertised. Circumstances do matter.

But if you are happy with Foles, Dalton and possibly a rookie with no guarantee of improvement that’s all good.

So you would rather two guys with very similar stats and results who cost 10-12 mil each than a guy for 1.5mil. Sure, Mitch would have actually cost more. But what upside is there without him? I just don’t see it. All I see is failure as an organization.

[dplank]

Mitch was terrible and I’m so glad he’s gone. Regardless, my bent is Paces miss on draft day. I don’t blame Mitch for being drafted where he was, he tried he just sucks at football. The last thing we need to do now is have Pace fuck up again and mortgage the future while he’s at it. It’s why I wanted Russ, we already know he’s great. I’ll send picks for a proven guy but not on a prayer the Pace doesn’t blow it again.

[malk]

What I keep coming back to with Pace's miss is not that he missed out on Mahomes and Watson, galling as that is neither were touted to be as good as they turned out to be and it happens. What really gets me is the trade up to make that mistake. I know it's been done to death but there were three guys there that all looked pretty decent and Pace's evaluation was so off that not only did he get the worst of the three but he also thought he *had* to make sure he got him.

There was absolutely nothing that should have suggested that Trubisky was sufficiently ahead of Watson or Mahomes that he had to give up picks to make sure we didn't miss out. I called that out immediately after the pick and it was obviously true with hindsight. So whilst my being on the Mahomes bandwagon was nice and all, what the hell do I know about evaluating QBs. But what I can do is the same meta analysis that shows, pretty obviously, there wasn't much between them at the time so going full Pace on Pace bidding war was pretty dumb.

Plus ca change.

[DevilsProspect]

What I keep coming back to with Pace's miss is not that he missed out on Mahomes and Watson, galling as that is neither were touted to be as good as they turned out to be and it happens. What really gets me is the trade up to make that mistake. I know it's been done to death but there were three guys there that all looked pretty decent and Pace's evaluation was so off that not only did he get the worst of the three but he also thought he *had* to make sure he got him.

There was absolutely nothing that should have suggested that Trubisky was sufficiently ahead of Watson or Mahomes that he had to give up picks to make sure we didn't miss out. I called that out immediately after the pick and it was obviously true with hindsight. So whilst my being on the Mahomes bandwagon was nice and all, what the hell do I know about evaluating QBs. But what I can do is the same meta analysis that shows, pretty obviously, there wasn't much between them at the time so going full Pace on Pace bidding war was pretty dumb.

Plus ca change.

Think we all had the same thoughts as soon as the trade up was made. Saw no reason to trade up. It would be different this year if you were trying to jump up and get Lawerance who is a significantly higher prospect then the rest. Sure Lance, Fields could end up better. But at the moment Lawerance is the guy. I agree Trubisky didn’t show anything that suggested he was any better prospect than Maholmes or Watson. Though most draft boards had him better or equal to the others. I get it, he was their guy. But the trade was terrible not because he failed, but it was unnecessary.

[DevilsProspect]

Mitch was terrible and I’m so glad he’s gone. Regardless, my bent is Paces miss on draft day. I don’t blame Mitch for being drafted where he was, he tried he just sucks at football. The last thing we need to do now is have Pace fuck up again and mortgage the future while he’s at it. It’s why I wanted Russ, we already know he’s great. I’ll send picks for a proven guy but not on a prayer the Pace doesn’t blow it again.

Was Mitch a superstar? Absolutely not. You won’t hear me say that. But I won’t say he sucks either. If he had a better support maybe. Not defending him but just saying how I see it. Would still rather him on the roster than Foles. But that’s what this place is for, our opinions right or wrong.

I can see the Wilson move if made. Would have been excited if he was a bear. Mostly because he is on of my favorite QBs in the league. But I am kinda happy that they didn’t sell the farm. He would have definitely made the bears better obviously. But not sure if it was the right move overall. With being cap strapped and lack of picks, it could have turned into a disaster. If the bears bite the bullet this year, can they improve the line and other positions. Next off-season the push for Wilson or another QB would make more sense overall.