Pace had to go. No doubt about it. His strength was was late round drafting but he hamstrung himself in doing that by constantly trading away his capital and constantly overspending in FA killing his chance at gaining comp picks.
Howard, Amos, Ejax, Cohen, Monty, Gipson, Nichols, Kwiatkoski, Mooney etc…
Most teams aren’t consistently hitting that late in the draft. I’m not saying all those guys are world beaters but they belong in the NFL and most late rounders are flushed 1-3 later. But of course the flip side of that is the trades.
Traded a future 2nd for Anthony Miller.… Damien Harris was drafted with the pick that Pace traded up to get Monty. Is Monty so much better than Harris that he was worth a 4th the following year?… In the 4th round in 2016 Pace traded up for Kwiatkoski and then picked Hall and Bush… all picked before Dak (also a 4th rounder) while he had Cutler as the starter.
Then of course there is 2017… could’ve stayed put taken Mahomes or Watson but instead he traded 67, 111, and a future 3rd to the 49ers to move from 3 to 2. The Saints later traded the 49ers for the 67th pick which became Kamara, Kupp was drafted at 69. Pace also traded up for pick112 (after trading away 111) for Ejax giving up 119 and 197, 119 was used to take Josh Reynolds. He probably wouldn’t have traded down at 36 either if he didn’t make that dumb trade up. 36 became Buddha Baker. Other possibilities at 36: Marcus Maye (39), Curtis Samuel (40), Dalvin Cook (41). Instead the trade back netted Shaheen and Cohen. ??
So just to recap in 2017 Pace could’ve had:
1st (3) Mahomes/Watson
2nd (36) Baker/Maye/Cook/Samuel
3rd (67) Kamara/Kupp
4th (111) Ejax
Kittle was taken one pick before Pace took Jordan Morgan at 147. If ever there was a time to trade up… lol. But naw he had already taken Shaheen at 45. No need to hedge your bets with a talented prospect from Iowa when you’ve got that Ashland stud waiting to sign a contract.
Sure there is some of hindsight involved here but there is also a lot of common sense also. Pace had an opportunity to select an all time great draft class and he absolutely blew it.
He should’ve been fired after 2019 when it was obvious he had fucked the 2017 draft so hard.