Ryan Pace feels no pressure from Bears ownership in potential make-or-break season
By John Buhler
Ryan Pace doesn’t feel pressure in the slightest with the Chicago Bears.
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace feels very confident about his job security.
Despite missing the NFC playoffs for the fourth time in his five years on the job, Pace thinks things are going well between him and other key members of the organization in Bears chairman George McCaskey and team president Ted Phillips. Even if it’s a critical year with his job on the line, what Pace said on Wednesday signifies he feels no pressure whatsoever. Well, he probably should.
“We all have the same goals and the same vision for this season,” said Pace. “Last year was disappointing for all of us. That starts with me. That’s hard to swallow. It’s disappointing.”
“There’s a number of factors that went into that. Just being real with ourselves this offseason and making hard decisions, whether it’s the roster or it’s staff or it’s different things we’re doing here at Halas, all those hard decisions, I feel like they’ve been made or continue to be made…We all put our egos aside and what’s best for the team. I feel the full support from George and from Ted.”
Why doesn’t Ryan Pace feel the pressure we all know he’s up against?
While Pace has drafted a few Pro Bowlers since 2015, he has had more than his fair share of misses. He gets routinely harpooned for trading up from No. 3 to No. 2 to draft Mitchell Trubisky out of North Carolina when Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes were still on the board. Though Mahomes is the best of the trio, passing on him was one thing, but Watson was another.
Pace picked first-round busts in Kevin White out of West Virginia, who is out of the league and Leonard Floyd out of Georgia, who has to start anew with the Los Angeles Rams. While he did trade for Khalil Mack with the then-Oakland Raiders, the Silver and Black used those two first-round picks going their way on Josh Jacobs and Damon Arnette. Then, there’s Adam Shaheen.
Pace over-drafted Shaheen in the second round out of Ashland and he amounted to nothing more than a blocking tight end with the Bears the last three years. Shaheen is taking his talents to South Beach as one of the bigger second-round busts since the New York Jets took quarterback Christian Hackenburg one pick ahead of Deion Jones, who went to the Atlanta Falcons.
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Though there are general managers who must feel great about their job security, such as Chris Ballard of the Indianapolis Colts, Howie Roseman of the Philadelphia Eagles and Brett Veach of the Kansas City Chiefs, Pace is not in the same galaxy. If the Bears don’t make the playoffs this year, he and head coach Matt Nagy have issues.
Pace may come across like he’s facing no pressure, but we’re all feeling the pressure he should.