Q&A WITH CHICAGO BEARS GENERAL MANAGER RYAN PACE

Interview with Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Pace

Is there a timeline or deadline for QB trades? Is there such a thing as too much? I think with any trade we’re always going to have, we can’t be reckless. We’re always going to have our limits with every trade and that’s going to be individually based on the position and the player you’re talking about, of course. And I think the timeline just dictates, 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.

What are the biggest challenges of the pre-draft process without an in-person combine and what did you learn last year going through it virtually? It’s interesting. Every team is operating under these conditions. First off, you’ve really got to rely on your area scouts, and we have. They’ve done a great job in the fall getting all of the information they can because our interaction is much less. We don’t have the combine interviews. We don’t have the 30 visits. We can go to the pro days, but there’s very little interaction. We have to be resourceful going forward. We’ve got to maximize the conditions we’re operating under, and it’s going to be different. We’ve all gotten really comfortable and familiar with using the Zoom calls, but sometimes it’s not the same as having that interaction. We’ve just got to maximize the conditions we’re under. We were just meeting with our coaches today on their pro day schedules. It’s things like that, appreciating our coaches traveling all around the country and going above and beyond, doing their job to attend these pro days, along with our scouts. And we’ve just got to be resourceful in this process along with every other team.

Nagy suggested during Super Bowl week that the Bears are a QB away from contending. How are you approaching the offseason to reflect that opinion? On the quarterback, it’s a critical position for us, and as I said, every single thing is on the table. I think we owe that to ourselves – our own quarterbacks, trades, free agency, draft, we’re working through that. I do like this staff we’ve assembled to attack that together. We’ve added some guys even in recent days that can help us as we evaluate that position. We know the importance of it. We know that’s a priority as we go into the offseason. That’s stating the obvious, and I’m just excited about attacking it together. I do like the staff we’ve assembled to kind of attack that together. We’ve added some guys even in recent days I think that can help us as we evaluate that position. We know the importance of it. We know that’s a priority as we go into this offseason. That’s stating the obvious. I’m just excited about attacking it together.

How close is this roster to contending in the division and conference? There’s a window here to improve our team, and I think it started with our coaches and kind of the tweaks we made there. We look at this we have foundation pieces in place on our roster. We’ve proven we have a playoff-ready roster; we’ve been there two of the last three years and we’ve got a lot of young talent we need to develop. Obviously, our expectations are much higher than that; that’s obvious. But it’s about building upon what we already have, making the necessary strides. That’s a big one that we’re talking about right now and I understand that. But we do feel like we have a lot of foundation pieces in place, a lot of good talent on our roster, and it’s our job to add to that.

You’ve taken some big swings before. Are you anticipating another? It just depends. 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. It doesn’t necessarily mean – if we go into this draft, for example, there’s a lot of evaluation that needs to take place. 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 that are there, the different options that are there. What I appreciate is this is the Josh Lucas, the Champ Kelly, Mark Sadowski, Jeff King, Joey Laine, leaning on those guys and the ability – and I think this offseason more than any because of the number of players that are going to be available. We’re going to see a lot of guys hit the market in the coming weeks. I really think as a staff we’ve got to be able to pivot and adjust along the way to some things that we might not expect. I think that comes down to the number of players that we’ve evaluated and just being ready for every scenario and there’s a lot of hard work that’s gone on behind the scenes to allow us to maneuver through a really unprecedented offseason.

What are the strengths of this football team? I think our strength is our coaching staff. I think we have a strong coaching staff that we built upon this offseason. But yeah, I mean, our defense is the strength of our team. We have a lot of talent all throughout our defense… And I think on offense, as the season went on, you saw some of our young talent emerging. I thought our offensive line really settled in the second half of the season. Our running game settled in. The talent we have at the receiver position, the talent we have at the tight end position with Cole and Jimmy -- again, it's on us to continue to add to it… Continue to get better and that's the window we're in now.

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