At long last, Ryan Pace has the Bears pointed in the right direction. There is still much work to be done. Pace has rid himself of Jeff Fisher lite in John Fox, replacing him with Doug Pederson lite in Matt Nagy. To work with, Nagy has second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, a 2017 trade up target who did not disappoint as a rookie but hardly set the world on fire. One reason was how little he had to work with. That’s on Pace, who let Alshon Jeffery walk and replaced him with an embarrassing assortment of also-rans. To Pace’s credit, he’s worked hard to change that this offseason, signing Allen Robinson, play-making tight end Trey Burton and big-play specialist Taylor Gabriel. He also drafted impressive college compiler Anthony Miller at No. 51. Of course, this was after Pace seemed to miscalculate restricted free agent Cameron Meredith’s market, losing him to the Saints after using only an original-round tender. Pace also did little to improve his shaky pass rush or offensive line. That’s not a cardinal sin. There’s only so much you can accomplish in one spring. The problem is that Pace let himself accumulate so many needs to begin with. He needs Trubisky and Nagy to springboard a fourth-year turnaround.
