The scorpion says to the frog, “Will you bring me to the other side of the river?’
“Of course not,” says the frog, “You’ll sting me and we’ll both drown!”
“I won’t, I won’t, I promise, I want to get to the other side too,” pleaded the scorpion.
The frog pondered on this and finally agreed. “Okay, hop on!”
The scorpion climbed on the frog’s back and off they set, swimming across the torrent.
When they were halfway across, the scorpion reared up its tail and plunged its stinger deep into the frog’s back. “What have you done?” cried the frog, “You’ve killed us!”
“I’m sorry!” cried the scorpion, “I couldn’t help myself, I’m a scorpion……”
Ryan Pace couldn’t do anything else this off-season but re-sign an injury prone 30 year old linebacker and let the young, improved Nick Kwiatkowski walk. He couldn’t do anything else but overpay for Robert Quinn, who Chuck Pagano will drop back into coverage and fake blitzes with … but never actually … y’know …. blitz. He couldn’t do anything else but tie up 16M a year in two over-the-hill tight ends.
Because Ryan Pace is Ryan Pace.
A nice enough guy in the 1920s F. Scott Fitzgerald East Egg mode. Brylcreemed, well-mannered, effusive, old-money type of way about him. But football is not his thing. He doesn’t see what a player is on a football level. He can’t do. He paid Mike Glennon – an absolutely terrible quarterback – eighteen million dollars to be the Bears starting QB. He chose him to be the bridge, the mentor that would lead us into battle and be the role model for a younger terrible quarterback that Pace had selected over DeShaun Watson and perhaps the greatest QB of all time, Patrick Mahomes.
With that draft’s entire complement of passers at his disposal … Mitchell Trubisky was the one Pace chose. Every single person watching that draft – other than Momma Trubisky of course – was thinking WTF?
As soon as the Bears pick came in, fans were stunned, everyone else laughed. Nobody could believe it. As soon as Pace traded up to the #2 spot it was almost certainly going to be for Watson … but then he shit the bed in unbelievable fashion. Trubisky would have been there at 3 … and at 4 … and a whole long way down the first round… but Ryan Pace gave up four picks to move up one spot for a quarterback nobody wanted.
It was Ryan’s great plan – as multi-million dollar GM of the Chicago Bears – to supply our franchise with Mike Glennon and Mitchell Trubisky. It was his plan to say “Here. Here are Achilles and Hector. With these men we will conquer and slay the NFC and seize the Lombardi trophy from whomsoever they send against us in the Super Bowl. “
He even tried to acquire the great Marcus Mariota, a player eventually bench by the Titans.
But the McCaskeys know even less about football, and instead of firing him they entrusted him with picking another quarterback. Fine. We were lucky – there were plenty of options available this year. Teddy Bridgewater and his 99 rating and 9-2 TD-INT ration was up for grabs. They even had him in the room and let him walk out of it again. Couldn’t show the man any commitment. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Jameis Winston – the top passer in the NFL last season – is a free agent. 5100 yards. First in the league. Threw more touchdown passes than anyone not named Lamar Jackson. Connected on more long bombs than anyone in the league. Top three in yards per pass. He was the most sacked QB through week 14. Zero protection. New system. He played through a torn meniscus and a broken thumb all season. No doubt these factors all played into his 30 interceptions – ten of which were tipped balls by the way and hardly his fault. The man is only 26.
Not good enough for Ryan Pace though. Nope.
Ryan couldn’t do anything else but sign a JAG like Nick Foles – the Jags’ second-best passer – a guy whose team is paying him 18 million dollars this year not to play for them. Ryan couldn’t do anything else but sign a guy that got benched last year. Ryan’s new plan is a guy that went 6-6. He’s a superbowl MVP you cry. Well, he didn’t get them there … and the winning QB always gets the MVP. He beat the Bears and we were the best defense in the league that year! you wail. Statistically maybe, but we were also the most anodyne, tooth-less docile defense in the league under a DC who was allergic to pressure. Nick Foles had a chest injury going into that game. Directive one should have been planting a helmet in that chest on the very first play using a third stringer. But no, he was allowed to get through the game at his own speed, unfettered, unchallenged. No pressure from a flaccid, demure co-ordinator … allowing the Eagles to rack up the measly 15 points they needed to win.
Will Pace dilute his remaining picks into a plethora of two-hundred-and-something picks? It doesn’t really matter. There won’t be an accurate pro like Teddy Bridgewater under center, nor a stud like Jameis Winston – the guy at the top of the passers’ list on NFL.COM
Nick Foles.
That’s the next failed part of Ryan Pace’s big plan.
Irish Sweetness - Bears Talk 