There is a book called Flight of the Buffalo written by James Belasco and Ralph Stayer. In it there is a tremendous quote that goes as follows: “Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” Never was there a quote that better described GM Ryan Pace. Or least what people thought about Pace.
Chicago Bears fans were certain that despite one of the more disappointing seasons in recent memory, the GM wouldn’t see reality. A reality that involved two of his former 1st round picks being root causes of the issues plaguing the team. Mitch Trubisky with his ongoing inconsistency and growing lack of aggressiveness. Leonard Floyd with his now-established inability to sack quarterbacks (3 in 16 games).
Despite such obvious evidence that those picks weren’t delivering, people were certain Pace was too invested, too convinced they had star potential to consider making a change in 2020. Just wait a little longer. It would happen. He’d rather see the thing through and risk his job rather than cutting his losses and trying something else.
Turns out, those people were wrong.
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Ryan Pace did his job, which is what’s best for the Bears
Pace did everything he possibly could to make Floyd and Trubisky successes. He switched to Matt Nagy as head coach and installed as QB-friendly a system as there is to help his quarterback. He put Khalil-freaking-Mack across from Floyd to basically guarantee him single blocking all year long. Neither play took advantage of their opportunities. So the GM did what he thought was best for his franchise.
He traded for Nick Foles from Jacksonville to compete at quarterback while cutting Floyd and signing veteran pass rusher Robert Quinn. His quote about Floyd on April 3rd said it all.
“Look, Leonard’s had some very good years here. He’s a key part of a top defense. I don’t think acquiring Robert is not necessarily a knock on Leonard. It’s just doing what we feel is best for our team. I think you saw how quickly Leonard signed elsewhere, a pretty good contract. So we’re happy for him.
But for us, it was just, hey, we’re constantly tweaking and trying to upgrade our roster and we feel like we’ve done that with our pass rush with Robert Quinn.”
Listen, Pace isn’t perfect.
He’s made his fair share of mistakes. Even so, this is further proof that the man understands the bottom line of his job. That is to do whatever it takes to make the Bears a success. If that means taking a hit to his pride by abandoning two of his prized draft picks? So be it. Some guys wouldn’t be able to do that. Give credit where it’s due. Pace embraced change, for better or worse.
