Words don’t hurt
The Bears rarely say what they mean, so Ryan Pace’s endorsement of Mitch Trubisky doesn’t mean much
Audacity best describes what the Bears exhibited the other day while trying to sum up a disappointing season that defied description.
General manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy spent nearly 45 minutes behind a microphone because NFL rules dictate they must, two football guys providing a working definition of “perfunctory.” One of the most telling exchanges came after Nagy was asked if he planned to make any changes to his coaching staff.
“That’s all part of the reflection stuff that I talked about a few days ago,’’ Nagy said. “So we are working through that.”
They sure worked fast. Three hours after the cameras stopped rolling at Halas Hall, the Bears announced the firing of four assistant coaches.
They fired the offensive coordinator never entrusted to call plays, the offensive line coach in charge of an injured position group full of young players who regressed and the tight ends coach apparently held responsible for the stunted growth of one of Pace’s draft busts. They also dismissed an assistant special teams coach.
Why Nagy brazenly chose to obfuscate when asked directly about staffing moves he knew were coming merely underscored how little the Bears respect those public opportunities for transparency. This was just the latest glaring example of a systemic organizational problem. This was so Bears.
The media — and, by extension, the fans — seek answers and immediacy, especially after an 8-8 season that exposed the Bears as a team that couldn’t handle success. But the Bears traditionally fail to grasp the powers of perception in the NFL’s third-largest media market. If that weren’t true, Pace wouldn’t go four months between news conferences. Pace’s inaccessibility is far from a petty thing; shielding himself from objective scrutiny deprives Pace of the benefit of the doubt when he could use it and diminishes his credibility. How Pace is perceived shapes his reality, not that he cares.
All this matters because it helps us understand why what Pace said about quarterback Mitch Trubisky probably isn’t worth the stir it created.
“Mitch is our starter,” Pace said — as Chicago gasped.
Only four qualifying NFL passers finished 2019 with a lower passer rating than Trubisky’s 83.0. Trubisky was last among those quarterbacks in yards per attempt. Forget the numbers; Trubisky regularly failed the eye test. Not even the most devoted Grabowski could argue that Trubisky did anything but regress. Yet here was Pace, two days after the season, committing to a quarterback defined by inconsistency and inaccuracy after 41 NFL starts. Really?
The initial reaction to Pace’s declaration of support is that he’s living in denial and turning 2020 into a playoffs-orbust proposition for a GM inexorably tied to the quarterback he drafted No. 2 in 2017. All of which still might be true. But it bears remembering that Pace puts very little stock into the comments he makes to the media.
Seldom do the Bears say what they really mean.
Remember when Pace said before the 2017 NFL draft how much he valued experience in a quarterback, then drafted a guy with 13 college starts. Recall how “fired up” Pace was in March 2017 when he signed Mike Glennon to a three-year, $45 million contract to be the Bears starting quarterback — which lasted four games.
The point is, the patience Pace mentioned when defending Trubisky will come in handy when evaluating his own offseason approach. Wait until March 18 — the beginning of NFL free agency — before concluding how truly committed Pace is to Trubisky. Words uttered at a perfunctory postseason news conference don’t matter. Actions do.
Too many potentially better alternatives exist at quarterback for Pace to ignore the chance to upgrade the game’s most important position. He can call him the starter now without consequence. But to allow Trubisky enter training camp as the Bears’ unchallenged starting quarterback would fall under the category of professional negligence.
Beneath the veneer of his polished appearance and rehearsed rhetoric, I suspect Pace understands this. That could be a total miscalculation. too, but to me, a truer indication of what the Bears think of Trubisky came when Pace was asked about picking up the quarterback’s fifth-year option. The Bears have until May to make a decision they could have announced as early as this week — a $24 million commitment for 2021.
“We’re not at that point right now with the season ending just two days ago,” Pace said.
Yet it wasn’t too early to declare Trubisky as the starter for 2020? Pace’s noncommittal answer essentially reminded everyone to follow the money. Reserve judgment until seeing which veteran free agent the Bears sign to join Trubisky in the quarterbacks room. Wait until after the NFL draft April 23-25 to see how high the Bears select Trubisky’s potential successor.
If after adding two quarterbacks — one via free agency, the other through the draft — the Bears still commit $24 million to Trubisky despite all the evidence advising otherwise, then Pace will invite even more criticism. Trubisky hasn’t earned that level of financial commitment.
The defense remains good enough to carry the Bears back into playoff contention next season. Whoever plays quarterback, Pace would be wise to start fixing a broken offense by rebuilding the offensive line and installing a power attack by signing a tight end and a fullback. Tweaking the roster to reflect a bigger emphasis on the running game, of course, would require a brutally honest conversation with Nagy about evolving as a play-caller. Nagy’s inability to adapt to Trubisky’s limitations when calling plays gives Pace a mandate for his coach just as big as the one for his quarterback.
That commitment to change offensively is the most significant one the Bears can make this offseason. The words from Pace to Nagy privately — and how they affect the team’s actions publicly — are the ones for which we should hold the GM most accountable.