Did the football gods save Pace from himself?

[PrimeTime]

A couple months ago all it would have taken was Houston or Seattle to pull the trigger and the Bears would now have either Wilson or Watson.

The Bears would also have a 30 mil QB and very little draft capitol. Probably wouldn't have been able to move up in the 2nd for the OT.

Looking back, which of the following options would you opt for now:

1. 2021 draft as it played out: Rookie QB on rookie deal for at least 4 years.
2. Wilson at QB along with his contract and minus 5 or 6 1st rd picks
3. Watson at QB along with his contract and minus 4 or 5 1st rd picks (assume for the moment Watson kept his dick in his pants)
4. Statford at QB along with his contract and minus 2 1st rd picks
5. Wentz at QB along with his contract - not sure what they would have had to give up.

I don't think Pace planned all along to pick Fields. He obviously tried to get a top flight veteran first and settled for Dalton just in case the draft didn't work out for him. Not sure if Pace was only planning to go after Fields in the draft, probably just wanted one of the top 5 to fall to a point where he could move up to get one.

I give Pace a lot of credit for not blowing his load and trading the farm to try and move up to number 3 or 4. That is something "rookie GM Pace" would have done. He also did a heck of job moving around and landing some nice prospects throughout the draft.

The stars had to align just right over the past couple months for everything to work out the way it did for Pace. Kudo's to Ryan for a job well done and finally well deserved. Hopefully the lucky horseshoe stays up his ass for a couple more years.

 

[greg23]

4-5-6 1st round picks couldn't have been traded......but I think Pace lucked out, and then pulled the trigger on an aggressive yet reasonable trade for the qb

 

[legendxofxlink]

It’s called collaboration.

 

[legendxofxlink]

Plus I’m pretty sure he secretly ran a smear campaign against Fields for him to drop.

 

[Anytime23]

In before people who cherish sub.500 records rip you.

 

[PrimeTime]

4-5-6 1st round picks couldn't have been traded......but I think Pace lucked out, and then pulled the trigger on an aggressive yet reasonable trade for the qb

There were multiple articles on how the Bears could have traded Mack, Smith and others to accumulate a couple more 2021 1st rd picks. They could have conceivably traded (3) 2021 1st rd picks, 2022 1st rd & 2023 1st rd. I'm not saying it would have been very wise. If some team is willing to gut their roster to accumulate 1st rd picks they can trade as many as they want. They just can't trade any picks beyond the next two future drafts.

 

[Nelly]

It seems like the stars aligned. You've got the ridiculous response to COVID shortening the season to 5 games so Fields got a little short changed in being able to display his talents and helped contribute to two bad games even though he still took down the defending national champs in spectacular fashion.

Then look at what happened in the draft.

1. Lawrence was the consensus #1 pick. No issues here.
2. The Jets traded away Darnold to make room for their next QB, Zach Wilson. He was a guy who had two fairly lackluster years for BYU before exploding in 2020 during a wonky COVID year and somehow jumped the guy who's been the top recruit (Fields) right alongside Lawrence and has been proving he's a big time player ever since.
3. Even more inexplicably (IMO) the 49ers had literally over a year to fawn over the tape of a guy who hadn't played since 2019 and hadn't played any real competition. They had so much time to talk themselves into what they can do with the raw tools that they ignored the wealth of tape that showed Lance has Trubisky-like downfield accuracy on his throws.
4. Falcons have no need to give up on Ryan yet so they took the most dangerous TE to ever enter the draft.
5. Bengals drafted their franchise last year (Burrow) so they grabbed his favorite weapon from LSU and the consensus top WR.
6. Miami drafted their franchise last year as well (Tua) so they grabbed an electric weapon for him (Waddle).
7. The Lions traded away Stafford and we all know Goff isn't the long-term answer. Apparently the Lions were looking QB but they couldn't pass on the prospect of locking down the LT spot for the next decade so they took Sewell.
8. Carolina was in need of a QB but they opted to try to reclaim Darnold and dump Bridgewater rather than go with a QB in this draft. Had they not done that, they almost certainly would have gone QB here.
9. Denver benefitted from Carolina's moves at QB leading up to the draft, getting Bridgewater for a 6th. Apparently him and Drew Lock are enough at QB to pass on Fields and instead grab a great duo at corner.
10. The 3 bitter rivals from the NFC East were here: Dallas/NYG/Philly. The last top WR on the board was Smith and the Eagles knew the Giants were eyeing him, so they traded in division to hop the Giant and take him.
11. The above created a situation where the Giant were now in business to trade down. Had they not had their man sniped, they probably would have opted to take Smith and be done with it. Enter the Bears who gave up a fair price to jump up 9 spots and grab Fields.

Pace said they had a few plans in place depending on how the board fell. He probably didn't think Fields would drop that far so he jumped into action. Say what you want about Pace but he's not one to be timid about going and getting his guy. He's done it in the past and he did it here. Then after getting Fields he made a bold move to go get a guy who was getting talked up as a good pick for the Bears at #20 in Teven Jenkins, except Pace got him at #39. Those first two picks are serious home run picks. He may have gotten a bit lucky with how things fell but he had the balls to seize the day when the opportunity presented itself.

 

[HeHateMe]

A couple months ago all it would have taken was Houston or Seattle to pull the trigger and the Bears would now have either Wilson or Watson.

The Bears would also have a 30 mil QB and very little draft capitol. Probably wouldn't have been able to move up in the 2nd for the OT.

Looking back, which of the following options would you opt for now:

1. 2021 draft as it played out: Rookie QB on rookie deal for at least 4 years.
2. Wilson at QB along with his contract and minus 5 or 6 1st rd picks
3. Watson at QB along with his contract and minus 4 or 5 1st rd picks (assume for the moment Watson kept his dick in his pants)
4. Statford at QB along with his contract and minus 2 1st rd picks
5. Wentz at QB along with his contract - not sure what they would have had to give up.

I don't think Pace planned all along to pick Fields. He obviously tried to get a top flight veteran first and settled for Dalton just in case the draft didn't work out for him. Not sure if Pace was only planning to go after Fields in the draft, probably just wanted one of the top 5 to fall to a point where he could move up to get one.

I give Pace a lot of credit for not blowing his load and trading the farm to try and move up to number 3 or 4. That is something "rookie GM Pace" would have done. He also did a heck of job moving around and landing some nice prospects throughout the draft.

The stars had to align just right over the past couple months for everything to work out the way it did for Pace. Kudo's to Ryan for a job well done and finally well deserved. Hopefully the lucky horseshoe stays up his ass for a couple more years.

Imagine believing in "football gods" in 2021

 

[Visionman]

We ended up “missing” out on the rest, and fell into the best case scenario anyone could ever imagine happening. We started the hand with 2-7 off suit and ended up hitting a full house to win. So yeah...

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

I was never for trading away future drafts for any quarterback (Wilson / Watson and especially Wentz!) . I would have "preferred" Watson, youth and proven if we were giving up draft capital. I was whole heartedly OK with the Bears sitting at 20 and drafting a tackle.

Best of both worlds happened. We did give up a lot, respective to what we're potentially getting 'no' but relative to the Bears roster/cap situation, yes.

 

[vabearsfan15]

Maybe he was patient, but more than likely Pace wasn't granted the power to trade too much draft capital away and teams were turning him down as he called in. He was likely given a limit and told to make it work. No team in the top 8 wanted to move all the way back to #20. It would have taken multiple 1s for any of them to take the bait, and aside from Russell Wilson/Watson Pace was never going to be given permission to make that type of move. I'm guessing Ted Phillps had a large say in how things transpire as they di.

But in the end, it worked out and everyone can take a sigh of relief for the time being. Even if Justin Fields only becomes a top 15 QB, we did really well and to have a QB on a rookie contract is the winning strategy in today's NFL....

 

[JGONBORICUA14]

Imagine trading all those picks for Watson right before all the allegations came out...

 

[greg23]

There were multiple articles on how the Bears could have traded Mack, Smith and others to accumulate a couple more 2021 1st rd picks. They could have conceivably traded (3) 2021 1st rd picks, 2022 1st rd & 2023 1st rd. I'm not saying it would have been very wise. If some team is willing to gut their roster to accumulate 1st rd picks they can trade as many as they want. They just can't trade any picks beyond the next two future drafts.

Who was giving the Bears 1st round picks for Mack, Smith and Others?

Fantasy land

 

[modo]

Lemony Pace and a Series of Fortunate Events...

He basically did his job with what he had. Thats what people do.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

I hear it’s all fixed.