Interesting Takes On The Noticeable Change In Ryan Pace.....

I havent read the article soul, will do it asap, but my 'theory' is that Pace is learning. Unfortunately we were (are) his learning toy, but hopefully the game is slowing down for him. Our roster was horrid, and so old. Love this young team, hopefully they can evolve and give us less injuries.

Lots of good comments on the original site. I think Pace learned on the job and I think he learned that the team was further in the holes than he thought. Its all subjective at this point. I go agree that this draft felt different, more "sure things" than projects early. Time will tell.

I think I buy all but the first persons opinion. I think the others are all pretty close to accurate if you combine them. 

He knew he wasn't going to compete right away, so he took guys that might have higher ceilings but were going to take longer to get there. Once he got his QB and his HC he changed his aproach and got guys that were closer to day 1 ready. It makes a lot of sense, I hope he changes his approach every couple years regardless b/c you don't want teams knowing your pattern. 

My thinking runs more along this track.  For the first time Pace is truly in charge of football ops and GMcC has assured him the checkbook for both player personnel and coaching hires is now more open.  To his credit Pace has quickly taken advantage of this which tells me his plan has been formulating for awhile now and stewing like dinner in a crock pot.

One theory I continue to resist though is that Fox was hired only as some sort of interim HC with no thought on the part of GMcC and Phillips that they could not win with him.  In fact I believe it was just the opposite.  I think they were looking for a HC who with some top vet talent blended in could quickly turn the Bears around as Fox had seemingly done in Denver.

The thinking was by pairing Fox's experience with Pace's skills as a bright young personnel guy they could swing the team around without ever admitting we needed to rebuild.  After the Emery/Trestman debacle that was a word fans did not want to hear.  It wasn't until after year two they realized this approach wasn't gonna work as planned but they were stuck.

I believe Fox and Pace were seldom on the same page personnel wise after year one but contractually Pace had at least some obligation to supply him with players he asked for.  Once things fell apart in October of 2016 over Fox refusing to back Cutler over Hoyer I also believe Pace saw the lack of any real planning and handwriting was on the wall big time.

In his post season review with GMcC and Teddy Bears I believe Pace indicated he'd prefer to replace Fox but was refused.  In lieu of that he was given a green light to rebuild completely as he saw fit independent of Fox's desires with the promise that he could hire a new coach in 2018 if Fox continued to fail.  This was no more than saving face for GMcC and Phillips.

By this January it was clear that GMcC was going to allow Pace all of the authority he needed to finish out his plan to rebuild around his own model which as we can see is drastically different from Fox's and also from those GMcC or Phillips may have conceived of in the past.  Come hell or highwater from top to bottom this is pure Ryan Pace doing his thing now.

I agree that he's been learning on the job and one lesson he learned the hard way is not to expect aging 2nd tier vets to fill needs better than some of his younger players.  It's not that the younger guys were all that good it's more like the vets weren't good at all and many either coasted or got paid to remain sidelined with injuries.  It was a failed plan.

I also don't feel Pace was on the verge of being fired.  GMcC obviously likes him and trusts him.  No doubt he may have considered hiring a VP of Football Ops but it's possible some whose advice he sought suggested he may well have that guy already in Ryan Pace and that he should allow him the resources he needed to get the job done properly.  So he did.

The rest of my opinion falls in with the thinking that he now has a HC and staff with whom he can have the synergism he's sought and he has his QB of the future.  Given that foundation there was no sense in delaying any longer and with an open check book and cap space to use it his FA targets became players who are on a whole different level than before.

The draft was much the same.  He's taken shots with players with extremely high upside and learned just how difficult it is to project that against injuries and other factors which have slowed their development.  Now he's focused on guys who can play now and upgrade the positions they were drafted to play year one.  That why Smith ranked higher than Edmunds.

So it's a whole new deal now and I like it.  The NFL no longer works off it's old 5 year coaching and rebuilding cycles.  Teams with good front offices and coaching staffs can turn a team around in 2 years now and have them competing for a championship in 3 years.  But is takes a bold approach and aggressiveness something the Bears have never been known for in the past.  In fact they've mostly been boringly methodical and a total anachronism in the 21st century NFL.

I don't know where this will take us yet but I like what I see and suddenly it's become interesting to watch them again.