Getty General manager Ryan Pace of the Chicago Bears
Could Chicago Bears’ ownership have a cap on general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy? According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, many present in league circles are wondering if that’s the case. In his latest mailbag for SI, Breer was asked whether the Bears are considering moving up in the first round of the draft in order to snag one of the top five available quarterbacks, and he noted that “rival teams believe they are.”
He then gave an interesting caveat: If Pace and Nagy are interested in moving up in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft — and many analysts and insiders close to the team believe they might be — it may not matter, because ownership might not trust them enough to do it.
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Breer: Bears Ownership May Not Sign Off on Huge QB Trade
“One question being batted around in NFL circles is whether ownership would sign off on a massive move up the board, which would take moving future assets to pull off,” Breer wrote about Chicago potentially trading the farm to move up to select a quarterback. “There were questions about the job security of Nagy and Pace in the middle of last season, and the team has been coy about the contract status of the GM and coach. And sometimes, in situations like that, owners will be careful about letting guys sell out in the draft.”
It’s fair to wonder why Bears President/Chief Executive Officer Ted Phillips and Chairman George McCaskey would retain Pace and Nagy in the first place if they didn’t trust them enough to move up to select the future of the franchise. Nagy in particular has yet to take part in the drafting of a quarterback in Chicago, and this is likely the year that will happen. But will it happen in the first round or later?
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Pace on Big Moves: ‘We Can’t Be Reckless’
While Pace and Nagy aren’t ones to tip their hands, nothing Pace has said this spring suggests the team is going to make a big move in the first round.
“We can’t be reckless. We’re always going to have our limits with every trade and that’s going to be individual based on the position and the player you’re talking about,” Pace said earlier this month. “You obviously have a lot of different things planned out with free agency and the draft and the last thing you want to do is put yourself or the team in a bad position where you get kind of stuck. So I think you have internal timelines that you know based on the calendar year with free agency and the draft and you operate from that.”
When asked if he might take a big swing at a position of need — like quarterback — this offseason, Pace said the following: “It depends on the opportunity. It’s not like we go into it and say we’re going to take a big swing just to make headlines and make a splash. That depends on what’s presented to us. It could go a number of different ways. … Trading up might not be the best option. It could be staying put. It could be going back. I think it just depends on the different targets, the different options that are there.”
With the draft coming up in less than a week, it won’t be long before we see what those options are.
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