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Former Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace has evidently impressed the Atlanta Falcons enough to earn a front-office promotion for the 2023 season.
According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the Falcons are bumped Pace up the ladder in their front office, promoting him from the senior personnel executive role he held in 2022 to director of player personnel for the upcoming NFL season.
Pace was the predecessor of current general manager Ryan Poles, who took over after Pace was dismissed from the post following the conclusion of the 2021 season. He made a number of consequential decisions throughout his seven-year tenure, such as trading for star pass rusher Khalil Mack and moving up to No. 2 overall in the 2017 NFL draft to select quarterback Mitchell Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.
Pace’s mistakes ultimately outweighed his successes, though. He often mismanaged team resources, preferring to trade away draft picks in order to acquire veteran players and overpaying for free agents who did not pan out for the team. He also whiffed on a number of the draft choices he did make, particularly when it came to wide receivers, missing on Kevin White (2015), Anthony Miller (2018) and Riley Ridley (2019)
The Falcons also promoted Kyle Smith to serve as assistant general manager under Terry Fontenot, but the team has not officially announced either promotion yet.
Will Justin Fields Alter Ryan Pace’s Bears Legacy?
There weren’t too many Bears fans who were upset about Pace’s firing when the news finally came down in January 2022. Many of them actually believed the Bears could have helped themselves by making the decision an offseason earlier instead of affording him one more season to dig the team into a deeper hole — both in terms of draft capital and the salary cap — in a desperate attempt to save his job.
One good thing that came out of his desperation, though? Quarterback Justin Fields.
While Poles is now the man who inherits the responsibility of building the Bears roster around Fields, Pace is the one who cut a deal with the New York Giants and moved up from No. 20 to No. 11 overall in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft to select him. Poles will undoubtedly get a bulk of the front-office credit if Fields turns the Bears into a winner — especially after sticking with him despite having the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 — but at least some of the credit goes to Pace, too, even if he was simply trying to make a bold move to save his skin.
Pace’s legacy could also be remembered more fondly if Teven Jenkins pans out, too. He moved up 13 spots in the second round of the 2021 draft to get the former Oklahoma offensive tackle, and while early-career injuries suggested Jenkins could be another of Pace’s highly drafted mistakes, he stabilized in his move to guard in 2022 and now has the opportunity to become a long-term interior starter at left guard heading into 2023.
Would either Fields or Jenkins achieving long-term success make Bears fans miss the days of Ryan Pace? Not likely, no, but it could make his legacy less maligned.
Can Ryan Poles Right the Ship With Justin Fields?
Poles might not have been the general manager who drafted Fields, but he has done a fairly commendable job of building up the supporting cast around his quarterback and putting him in a position to succeed heading into the 2023 regular season.
Poles did not have a first-round pick in his first season in charge (part of the cost for Pace moving up for Fields in the previous year), but he took full advantage of the opportunity in 2023, trading down from the No. 1 overall spot for numerous additional draft selections as well as a true No. 1 wide receiver — D.J. Moore — for his quarterback. He then used his first-round pick (after one more trade-back to No. 10) on Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright, putting the finishing touches on a new-and-improved offensive line that also added veteran right guard Nate Davis in free agency.
Poles also added another pass-catcher for his quarterback through the draft, cashing in a fourth-round pick on Cincinnati wideout Tyler Scott. Now, Fields will have a quartet of quality receivers to lean on — Moore, Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool and Scott — instead of the 2022 group that featured Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis as two of his two starters. He also gained another pass-catching tight end in Robert Tonyan, giving him another pair of reliable hands alongside Cole Kmet.
But while the offensive groundwork has been set, Poles can only do so much to help Fields take advantage of the opportunity. The second-year general manager must now hope that his trust was not misplaced and that Fields — who has shown flashes in his first 25 starts — will take the meaningful strides as a passer that have been expected of him. Even if Fields is not Poles’ hand-selected quarterback, their fates in Chicago may very well be intertwined now.
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