Is Ryan Pace Learning?

WindyCity

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You know what I really appreciated from Ryan Pace, besides picking players that I loved, is that the draft showed that he had learned from the Mitch draft to some degree.



1. Mitch was an entirely traits based pick. He had a tiny resume. The biggest game he had played in was the Sun Bowl. He had only been in the spot light for 1 year. There was no resume to tell you how he would handle pressure or a major media and football market. Mitch was considered by most a reach based on their overall rankings.

Fields led one of the biggest programs in the country, played in the playoffs, played well, and had some serious pelts on the wall. He has been in the spot light since he was 17 years old.



2. The first pick after Mitch was drafted was a 6'7", soft TE from a technical school in Ohio, a major developmental project at a position that takes a long time to develop. Shaheen was considered a reach.

The first pick after Fields was a monstrous OT who played at a real school and is the most physical player in the draft. He should be a day 1 starter and someone who directly protects you investment in Fields.



3. The 2nd offensive pick after Trubisky was Tarik Cohen, a good player, but at his peak he is a part time gadget player. He is not someone who has an everyday impact on the offense.

The 2nd offensive pick after Fields is another monstrous OT, a multi year starter in the most difficult conference in college football, and someone who if you hit on the pick should be your starting RT or RG.



Pace made the bold move up for a QB, he had to. But instead of following it up with small school projects at less valuable offensive positions, he took big men from big schools, to protect and support his QB.
 

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I hope he's learned. If I were a GM my strategy would definitely be more reliant on players who played in power 5 conferences against the best competition who have a good amount experience. Less unknown when you go after those types.
 

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I have been one of the few Pace fans the last few seasons, and taken a bunch of heat for it.

Pace learned his lesson from the underwear olympics after Kevin White (2015) and Trubisky (2017), and has taken his recipe for success in later rounds and applied it to the entire draft.
 

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We just don't know if he has learned anything. We don't. There are some factors in this draft that didn't exist a few years ago.

He's desperate and this is Matt Nagy's QB. The draft also fell pretty favorably for him. But the sample size is small. Is this an outlier or is this what's to come? We won't know those answers for a while.

But none of that matters. What matters is right now, it was a good draft that filled major needs and there are no projects involved. The Bears might have just finally found their franchise QB.
 

jts1207

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Learning? Lol. He was somehow given yet another chance to draft a franchise QB. The board would be in love with any of the top 5 had he picked them.
 

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I don't trust that he would have chosen Fields if he had his choice of picks.

I sat there hoping he wouldn't screw it up when he traded to 11. I certainly wasn't sure he wasn't going to take Jones.
 

thenewguy

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In short, yes, but I do think he has been learning every year. He just needs to stop giving away so many picks. I understand the moves this year and am thrilled with the draft, but his next evolution needs to be gaining more picks instead of giving them away.

The other change I see, is Nagy may be getting more say/power in team construction, or maybe the full offensive coaching staff has, hard to say. This was a clear direction change to find an 'identity' as Nagy talks about ad-nauseum. The O-line is addressed with more bodies and a meaner streak. Either Pace said enough with the finesse, or this is what Nagy wanted all along and is getting his way. I don't know if we'll get a clear answer - or know that we need one- but something changed in their 'collaboration'.

My favorite change is releasing Leno, not the obvious reason for his sub-par play, but one of my biggest gripes has been the handing over of jobs and lack of any real competition. This Oline, WR & RB core are going to be competing for playing time and I love it. Make these players fight and earn for time. Cycle in fresh bodies and replace players underperforming. My fear with that is Nagy selecting the right guys, as his personnel choices have been bad, although to his credit he got it right towards the end of the year.
 

ZOMBIE@CTESPN

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You know what I really appreciated from Ryan Pace, besides picking players that I loved, is that the draft showed that he had learned from the Mitch draft to some degree.



1. Mitch was an entirely traits based pick. He had a tiny resume. The biggest game he had played in was the Sun Bowl. He had only been in the spot light for 1 year. There was no resume to tell you how he would handle pressure or a major media and football market. Mitch was considered by most a reach based on their overall rankings.

Fields led one of the biggest programs in the country, played in the playoffs, played well, and had some serious pelts on the wall. He has been in the spot light since he was 17 years old.



2. The first pick after Mitch was drafted was a 6'7", soft TE from a technical school in Ohio, a major developmental project at a position that takes a long time to develop. Shaheen was considered a reach.

The first pick after Fields was a monstrous OT who played at a real school and is the most physical player in the draft. He should be a day 1 starter and someone who directly protects you investment in Fields.



3. The 2nd offensive pick after Trubisky was Tarik Cohen, a good player, but at his peak he is a part time gadget player. He is not someone who has an everyday impact on the offense.

The 2nd offensive pick after Fields is another monstrous OT, a multi year starter in the most difficult conference in college football, and someone who if you hit on the pick should be your starting RT or RG.



Pace made the bold move up for a QB, he had to. But instead of following it up with small school projects at less valuable offensive positions, he took big men from big schools, to protect and support his QB.
What aspect he learned from is he didn’t go crazy with skill position players. Everyone expected wr where I see growth here is he went oline. Have to get the oline mess fixed up for long term and Jenkins is a good long term piece
 

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Learning? Lol. He was somehow given yet another chance to draft a franchise QB. The board would be in love with any of the top 5 had he picked them.
I wouldn't. I wouldn't trust Lance or Jones with Nagy at all. Fields or Lawrence would be the only 2 I'd want to see Nagy work with.
 

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The biggest change we have seen is him moving away from taking "athletes" in the first round and taking productive football players instead. White, Trubisky and to some degree Floyd were more athletes than productive football players, and 2 of the 3 didn't work out well for the Bears.

But in those same drafts, more productive yet less athletic players like Goldman, Amos, Howard, Kwiakowski, Whitehair.. those guys went on to be productive players for the Bears at great value. Around that year Pace changed his draft strategy.

In 2018 he takes Roquan, one of the most productive players in college and football and probably his best early selection and from then on he continues with highly productive guys like Montgomery the following year.

He will still take a developmental athlete... but will do so later on in the draft. E.g. Bilal Nichols, Mooney, etc.
 

modo

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Ryan Pace has made good and bad choices...he's probably better than half the GMs in the league...

While we question his motives sometimes he goes out and gets the targeted players....

If Dalton is not brought in does Minnesota trade up to get Fields because they know that the Bears need a QB....

We don't know all that info and it is easy to play armchair GM
 

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I think it was actually a pretty easy decision for Pace. He could finally get rid of Trubisky which means he needed a QB so he took one and even better he traded up to get a very good one, he could also finally get rid of both Massie and Leno which again meant he needed to get a new tackle so he again traded up to get a new tackle and followed that up with another G/T with Borom.

When it comes to if he's learning, i think every GM learns things every year so yes he learned some things this year from going through last year and the years before.
 

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Learning? Lol. He was somehow given yet another chance to draft a franchise QB. The board would be in love with any of the top 5 had he picked them.
Yes he got a 2nd chance to draft a QB.
 

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I think 2 & 3 show Pace has definitely evolved as a GM. But I don't think he's proven 1 yet. I think if SF made the right pick and went with Fields at 3, then everything else played out the same, Pace would have made the same trade and said all the same things about Trey Lance.

And honestly, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with picks based on traits. I'm fine with drafting guys from small schools, with 1 year of tape, without a big spotlight.; and Pace shouldn't dismiss players because of those things. I just don't think those are legit reasons why Trubisky failed. Mahomes fits all those things, except he started multiple years with only 1 bowl game. Kyler Murray has a tiny resume and matching body. This stuff is a crapshoot, the Bears crapped out for the 100th time in a row. Just gotta keep rolling the dice and it certainly helps to not go against half the organization in secrecy and picking based on a gut feeling.
 

Myk

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Pace made the bold move up for a QB, he had to. But instead of following it up with small school projects at less valuable offensive positions, he took big men from big schools, to protect and support his QB.


That is why I have hope. Had he done the same as he did after getting Tubisky I would expect the same results.
 

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Ryan Pace has made good and bad choices...he's probably better than half the GMs in the league...

While we question his motives sometimes he goes out and gets the targeted players....

If Dalton is not brought in does Minnesota trade up to get Fields because they know that the Bears need a QB....

We don't know all that info and it is easy to play armchair GM
Sorry Modo, no matter what Pace does he’s an idiot and the worst GM in football.
 

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If Dalton is not brought in does Minnesota trade up to get Fields because they know that the Bears need a QB....
No they don't. People need to stop believing this smokescreen crap. It doesn't fool anyone. It was reported days before the draft that the bears were trying to move up.
 

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By far his best draft. 7 years though; and yea his propensity to give away draft picks is pretty annoying. I am happy with the improvement but until I see him stick to what he said when he was hired, which is build through the draft, I'm still not a fan.
 

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