Is Ryan Pace’s seat getting warm?

We talked about why we addressed the question in the above title, and also yesterday’s similar question about the head coach, in Thursday’s article titled, Is Matt Nagy’s seat getting warm? But here’s the condensed version for those that missed it.

Some of you guys (fans/and media) are already talking about giving up on the Chicago Bears’ head coach and GM five games into their second season and quite frankly, that’s ludicrous. And yet, I hear it every morning on the radio during my commute, I’m peppered with it on our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and there’s a vocal minority in our comment section at WCG too.

We all think it’s a silly notion, but about 30% of those polled yesterday (as of this writing) believe the head coach’s seat is warming up.

Since Ryan Pace is the man tasked with buying the groceries we had to pose the question about him being on the hot seat, so here’s what we asked our team.

After the first five games of the season, is Ryan Pace’s seat starting to warm?

Like I already said, my opinion on this matter is that it’s ludicrous to even consider a change at general manager or head coach, but a peek at the recent FanPulse votes and it seems there are several of you guys that are no longer confident in the direction of the franchise.

That chart has us Bears’ fans down to only a 42% confidence level, which is the lowest of the Nagy/Pace era. I’m sure some of that vote is from reactionary fans that get pissed off after every loss, but I would hope our FanPulse voters are smarter than that.

Anyway, here’s how the WCG staffers answered that question about Pace being on the hot seat.

Bill Zimmerman - Ryan Pace may not have hit a home run with the quarterback which is absolutely a knock against him. But he’s built a very strong roster after taking over a laughable one. Not only is Ryan Pace’s seat not warm, I expect him here at least another five years.

Erik Christopher Duerrwaechter - Absolutely not. Even though Ryan Pace is the GM who drafted Mitchell Trubisky, he’s built a team that’s 1) deep with talent for years to come and 2) capable of winning lots of games. Quite frankly, Pace is one of the least appreciated GMs in the entire league. And, before everybody starts with “but he made so-and-such a mistake” every single GM makes mistakes. Even the hall of fame managers like Ron Wolf, Gil Brandt, and Bobby Beathard made mistakes. He’s earned his stay in Chicago, and perhaps one more chance at a quarterback, if Trubisky doesn’t pan out.

WhiskeyRanger - No. He took over a team that arguably had the worst roster in the NFL, and has built a team that made the playoffs last season, and heads into the bye week at 3-2 in the strongest division in football. The loss against the Raiders was frustrating. I get it. But let’s not overreact here.

Jacob Infante - Pace’s seat should not be hot in the slightest. His quarterback decision in 2017 may not have been a great one, but he has made so many fantastic moves to construct the Bears’ roster with talented players, many of whom are still relatively young and in their prime. Of the poor moves he has made, none of them have truly crippled the franchise and were easily correctable. If the Bears choose to move on from Trubisky--or if they re-sign him--I fully expect Pace to still be the general manager when they make their decision.

Ken Mitchell - Ryan Pace’s seat is as cold as ice. Having said that, how he reacts to the challenges of making up for his inevitable misses in the draft (EVERY GM misses, A LOT) will go a long way towards seeing whether his seat remains sub-freezing or starts to thaw. He’s proven he can learn from his mistakes, but he will need to continue to make adjustments as resources become more limited due to his successes being re-upped.

Josh Sunderbruch - I am a pretty vocal Pace critic. I maintain that some of that criticism was deserved. However, the Bears would have to implode for Pace to be in danger. He has results to point to and he has excuses to give. He’s safe.

Patti Curl - Ryan pace is sitting in a swirly chair popping Hot Tamales and counting the pro bowlers on his roster over and over again.

Robert Schmitz - Well... maybe. Ryan Pace is the architect of this great defense and he certainly gets credit for that, but if the Bears implode this season the blame will likely fall more on him than anyone else. Much of the success of the 2019 season, let alone the 2020 season and beyond, rides on the success of some of Pace’s highest profile acquisitions, so if (and I’m intentionally overstating things here) Trubisky doesn’t pan out and Roquan continues to struggle and Montgomery never gets going and Anthony Miller disappoints and the offensive line continues it’s dreadful stretch of play, I have to imagine Pace will shoulder the majority of the blame. Considering that Pace has spent future draft capital to open up a championship window right here and now, his seat will likely warm before others, but it’s quite cold right now.

Sam Householder - No. Pace has had more good (Goldman, Whitehair, Amos, Howard, Floyd, Jackson, Cohen, Nichols and Smith) than bad (White, Shaheen, Bullard, Grasu), he’s found solid depth/role players (Bush, Kwiatkoski, Wims) and the jury is still out on Trubisky, Daniels and Miller. He’s added three All-Pros in Cohen, Jackson and Mack, two through the draft. Maybe he missed on Trubisky but he still hired Nagy and built the majority of this roster for the better.

Just like yesterday, if you guys ask Sam really nicely, he could share with you his WCG-MA version of his answer to this question. It was just as fire as his response about Nagy.

Tomorrow we’ll revisit our predictions for the Bears 2019 record now that the Bears have started 3-2.

Bears’ fans, if you aren’t a part of WCG’s FanPulse, join now because we need more level headed fans!