Are the Chicago Bears targeting a top Chiefs executive as next General Manager?
By Josh Hill
It turns out the heat has been turned up on Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace, despite reports that his job is safe.
The Chicago Bears are a playoff team this year, but it feels increasingly like that’s true in name only.
Despite a six-game losing streak, switching starting quarterbacks twice, and getting blown out in a Week 17 win-and-in game, the Bears will be playing football on Wild Card Weekend. This has caused both excitement and dread among Bears fans who are happy to watch a hard to come by playoff game but dreading what sort of phony endorsement that may serve to justify bringing back Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace in 2021.
It has been reported that Nagy will return as coach next year and that the Bears are hoping to re-sign Mitchell Trubisky. General Manager Ryan Pace, the brainchild of this current iteration of the franchise, is also expected to return.
However, all is not lost as far as hoping for some sort of change at Halas Hall.
Chicago Bears could be interested in hiring Chiefs executive as next GM
Brad Biggs from the Chicago Tribune speculated that if the Bears decide to fire Ryan Pace this offseason they’ll look to the Kansas City Chiefs front office for his replacement.
"Rumors have circulated in the last week that the Bears could target Kansas City Chiefs director of football operations Mike Borgonzi. This is speculation, but I heard this from two unrelated sources in the last few days, and with the Chiefs earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, Borgonzi wouldn’t be available to be hired away until the season is complete for the defending Super Bowl champions."
Biggs stressed that this is not a report that the Bears are actively looking for a general manager replacement, so don’t read too far into this. But if we’re peering that far down the rabbit hole, then it’s perfectly fine to muse about how teams that aren’t looking to fire their general manager don’t typically go sniffing for a new one.
The Chiefs are the gold standard in the NFL right now, with a franchise quarterback and an organization full of talent that teams are chomping at the bit to try and siphon. The Bears have been to the Chiefs well before, hiring Nagy off of Andy Reid’s coaching staff in an effort to replicate Kansas City’s offensive success (of course, the key missing piece in that equation is a sore spot for Bears fans).
Rumors that the Bears are interested in Borgonzi is a good sign for Nagy, as the two were in Kansas City at the same time and could share a similar vision for what they want the Bears to be. It also doesn’t mean that Pace would be fired, as Borgonzi could be brought in to serve alongside Pace before eventually succeeding him if things break that way.
Either way, despite the Bears making it seem like they’re running things back in 2021, there could be some much-needed changes this offseason after all.