One of the few moments during this 2018 off-season that saw GM Ryan Pace get criticized was when he permitted wide receiver Cameron Meredith to get away. The fourth-year receiver was a restricted free agent coming off a knee injury. Pace had brought him in as an undrafted kid from Illinois State in 2015. The health concern didn’t seem to bother the New Orleans Saints, who offered him a two-year, $9.5 million deal.
Most felt that was chump change. The Bears had plenty of cap space. Meredith was Pace’s guy. It seemed like a foregone conclusion Chicago would match it. Five days came and went without a word. At last the announcement came that the Bears would not match the offer. Meredith would be a Saint. It stunned a lot of people. Why do that? There was little downside to matching the offer. Meredith looked like an emerging stud at the end of 2016.
Pace’s response to the question was short and concise.
Ryan Pace said of the Bears' Cam Meredith decision: "We learn on our training staff and docs."
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) April 24, 2018
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It was a fair answer. There were legitimate concerns about Meredith’s knee. It hadn’t been a “textbook” ACL tear. The MCL was damaged too. Yet if it was that bad, why did not just the Saints but the Ravens make offers to him? Something didn’t add up.
Cameron Meredith decision may have come from higher up
Pace’s refusal to go deep on the matter wasn’t a surprise. He doesn’t like to let such things linger too long. Still, for him to let one of his best discoveries go like that was odd. That is unless it wasn’t his call. A source reached out to me stating that the decision to move on from Meredith didn’t come from Pace, but from Ted Phillips.
“Phillips was the driving force to get the Bears not to match Cam Meredith’s offer.”
Of all the things for Phillips to meddle in, this seems somewhat confusing. Why? One can only speculate given the tightly controlled details. It’s important to remember that Phillips is the Bears’ money man. Prior to the situation with Meredith, the Bears had handed $68 million in new contracts to wide receivers Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel.
It’s quite possible Phillips had no desire to fork over another $9.5 million to Meredith, especially with that uncertain knee. Regardless, the decision set off a chain reaction of events. Bennie Fowler and Marlon Brown were swiftly signed in free agency. Then the Bears traded up in the draft to grab Anthony Miller in the second round.
It’s curious to wonder what might’ve happened if Phillips hadn’t intervened as this suggests.
