Pace: 'If you want to be great, you can't sit on your hands'
Bears general manager Ryan Pace gambled on greatness when he traded up one spot to get quarterback Mitch Trubisky, giving up three additional picks.
"If we want to be great, you just can't sit on your hands," Pace said. "There are times when you've got to be aggressive, and when you have conviction on a guy, you can't sit on your hands. I just don't want to be average around here; I want to be great, and these are the moves you have to make."
Speculation that the Bears were bidding against themselves for Trubisky was refuted as other teams' interest came out later in the night.
"You always feel like there's competition," Pace said. "So when you have conviction on something, you've just got to trust your conviction on it and if you want a player you aggressively go get him.
"I knew there were teams inquiring about going up. There were teams calling me, at our pick, wanting to come up. So you could feel that all around us."
But were those teams interested in a quarterback?
"For sure," Pace said. "Yeah. 100 percent on that."
Trendsetters:
The Bears started a trend by trading up for quarterback Mitch Trubisky in Round 1 Thursday night.
The Bears sent the third overall pick, a third-rounder (67th overall) and a fourth-rounder (111th overall) this year and a third-round pick in 2018 to the San Francisco 49ers to move up one spot to No. 2 overall.
Later, the Kansas City Chiefs traded up from 27th to get the Buffalo Bills' No. 10 pick and grab Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs also parted with their third-round pick (91st overall) this year and next year's first-round pick.
Finally, the Houston Texans moved up from 25th overall to 12th in a trade with the Cleveland Browns to get Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. The Texans also sent the Browns their 2018 first-round pick.
Depth chart status:
GM Ryan Pace said the addition of Trubisky doesn't affect quarterback Mike Glennon, who was acquired in free agency and anointed the starter.
"I talked to Mike (Thursday) night," Pace said. "He understands the competitiveness of our business at every single position. Mike also understands he's our starting quarterback.
Mike's been here (at Halas Hall), working hard all the time, already developing leadership with his teammates. I'm extremely excited about Mike Glennon this season, and I'm extremely excited about adding Mitch to our roster."
It remains to be seen where Trubisky will land on the depth chart relative to veteran Mark Sanchez. Connor Shaw remains on the roster.
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