Ryan Pace never comes across as a guy who lets his emotions govern his judgment. Now there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Just research his selection of Mitch Trubisky in 2017 for an idea. That being said, the Chicago Bears GM always comes across as even-keel and under control in his press conferences. Even when he’s being peppered by tough questions. That doesn’t mean he isn’t human though.

Pace isn’t stupid. He is well aware of his situation just like everybody else. The pressure to win games is always great. Bears ownership has a high standard to meet. Rightfully so. That’s the price one pays for accepting the job for this franchise. While speaking with Mike Florio on the PFT PM podcast, the GM openly admitted that he feels a bit more pressure than normal to win this year after what happened in 2019.

“I think you definitely feel it. We all feel it and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I mean that’s one of the reasons you accept a challenge like this. You know it is a challenge when jobs like this become available. You said it. Going into the ’19 season, the excitement was off the charts because of what we did the previous year: 12-4, winning the division. So you go through last year and it just eats at you. We all have a bad taste in our mouth.

I mean 8-8 definitely isn’t good enough. We didn’t fulfill our expectations so now it’s been about everybody don’t be defensive, everybody drop their egos. We’re all humble. What can we do better to get this thing back on the track it was on in ’18? I think we’ve done a lot of things this offseason to get that going because last year was unacceptable.”

Nice to see Ryan Pace is taking his situation seriously

It’s not like Pace wasn’t taking his situation seriously. This is a guy who has one winning season in his tenure as GM. His prized quarterback played miserably in 2019 and was a big reason the team finished 8-8. If the Bears endure another losing campaign, that will make five in six years. It would be hard at that point to justify keeping him as the GM. So yeah. Of course he’s feeling the pressure.

All one has to know is by his actions. He traded for Nick Foles to compete with Trubisky. He cut Leonard Floyd, another 1st rounder he traded up for, to sign Robert Quinn. Trey Burton was cut as well and Adam Shaheen isn’t far behind as the tight end position was overhauled from top to bottom. A guy basically admitting to his past mistakes on such a grand scale like this doesn’t happen unless he knows his job is on the line.