The Ryan Pace Bracket Challenge: Management #3 vs #6

Armchair GMing does not take weekends off. At the time of this writing, the first upset was underway, with the 2017 receiver corps challenging the deadweight contract of Robert Quinn for the chance to advance in the Poor Management Conference. It’s possible that whichever questionable decision is selected there, it will go head-to-head with the questionable decisions under review for today. Before looking at this round’s choices, you can get caught up here:

As a simple reminder, each day features a head-to-head matchup of two of Ryan Pace’s “best” moves and two of his “worst” moves. This is about having fun in the offseason and there is not one correct interpretation. Vote as you choose and make sure to chime in through the comments section.

Best

#3: Signing Danny Trevathan (the first time) - when Pace needed to restructure the defense, he needed veteran talent who understood the system and who could become a field commander for the defense. He found his man in Danny Trevethan. While these days it’s easy to complain about a slower step or a lingering injury, in the first few years he was was a lynchpin of the reinvented Fangio defense.

#6: Trading away Brandon Marshall - when it was time to reinvent the locker room, Pace cut away Brandon Marshall. The receiver struggled to be part of a team greater than himself, no matter his talent. Pace salvaged a 5th-round pick for the capable player.

Worst

#3: Trading for Nick Foles - it takes a special something to trade for a player the Jacksonville Jaguars want to get rid of, but that’s what Ryan Pace did in the 2020 offseason. The move locked the Bears into Foles in terms of a lost draft pick (a fourth-rounder) and in terms of salary, with the quarterback rehab project worth a cap hit in the $14-17mil range for cutting him. Of course, this might have been a good move if Foles could play well, but he couldn’t. This is a trifecta—bad player who cost a pick and burned salary space the team needed.

#6: The Kyle Fuller contract situation - Kyle Fuller is the best player to play cornerback during the Ryan Pace era, even if he was an Emery selection. There aren’t many true #1 corners out there, and the Bears had one. How did Pace handle his contract situation? He got cute, used the transition tag, and quickly became an object lesson in why that’s a bad idea. The Packers signed Fuller to an offer sheet which left the Bears in a bind—either they could match the offer and swallow a poison-pill contract that would put the Bears in a situation where their best corner might have to be cut for cap reasons (which is what happened), or they could have let their best defensive back play for their chief rival. This wasn’t even Checkers vs Chess. This was Candyland vs Go, and it played out perfectly for the Pack.