MAKING THE GRADE: JUSTIN FIELDS PICK A BOOST FOR BEARS GM RYAN PACE

Bears general manager Ryan Pace threw draft analysts for a loop with his aggressive move up from 20th to 11th in the first round Thursday to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.

‘‘I had lots of Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy jokes prewritten, and the Bears just ruined them,’’ veteran draft analyst Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders wrote. ‘‘This was a great decision at a critical moment for that organization.’’

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. listed the Bears first among his ‘‘winners’’ in the first round.

‘‘The Bears gave up some major [draft] capital,’’ Kiper wrote in his first-round review. ‘‘But I love what they got in Fields, my secondranked quarterback, who would be in the discussion at No. 1 overall in any other year.’’

Other analysts were just as impressed, albeit grudgingly.

‘‘The Bears finally did something right,’’ Chet Gresham of DraftKings Nation wrote. ‘‘Well done, Chicago.’’

To others, it wasn’t just a random good pick but a game-changer for Pace.

‘‘This could end up being the defining move for embattled general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy,’’ The Ringer’s Dan Kelly wrote. ‘‘This pick may have saved the Chicago Bears,’’ FanSided.com’s Dan Schmelzer wrote.

Tanier, Gresham, Kelly and Schmelzer were among those at media outlets that gave the Bears an A+ for the Fields pick, an indication that they didn’t just like the pick, they loved it. That’s a far cry from 2017, when the Bears curiously and dubiously traded up from No. 3 to No. 2 to draft North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, with Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes on the board. Though Trubisky was high on several draft boards, the Bears trading up to select him was panned by most analysts — and they were right.