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Rozner: Bears' expectations huge in 2018

Another year, another draft for Ryan Pace.

That's four in the reign of this Chicago Bears GM, if you're keeping score at home.

Pace has been given more leash than just about any Bears exec ever considering his success rate, and he's been given more credit and support than anyone ever has with a 14-34 record.

Pace is considered, for the most part, a football genius.

So it was worth a chuckle when a colleague suggested earlier this week that this was a big draft for Pace.

The response was, "Why?"

No three-year stretch has been worse since 1975, and yet Pace managed to secure himself a contract extension through 2021.

So does it really matter if the Bears win five games again in 2018?

Seriously, he has George McCaskey and Ted Phillips in his back pocket and the city believing that none of this is his responsibility, even as he ended 2017 with only eight players left from the Phil Emery era, some of them named Kyle Long, Charles Leno, Kyle Fuller, Christian Jones and Pat O'Donnell.

So, no, this is not a big draft for Pace.

The current general manager is now four years into a rebuild, which is about the equivalent of 10 years in MLB, if you're trying to get a feel for how long this is taking.

He wisely waited three years to find a quarterback, thus selling ownership on the need to grant him more time, and now has in place the perfect quarterback and coaching staff.

Pace has everything he could ever want, so really the Bears should win 10 or 11 games, capture a division title and win a playoff game or two in 2018.

That should absolutely be the expectation for this year.

But if it doesn't happen, there won't be any pressure on Pace to move the program along.

You could waste your time naming the questionable draft picks and whiffs in free agency, not to mention the circus that has been the wide receiver position, but it really doesn't matter.

Pace will get as many years as he needs, and ownership is in no rush. If it really mattered, decades ago they would have hired a football expert to run the football operation and oversee all football matters.

That hasn't happened since the 1980s.

There's no rush, not when the franchise is worth billions and revenue sharing is filling the coffers.

The Bears are just fine, any way you slice it.

So with the teams in front of them gobbling up three quarterbacks and a running back in the first round of the draft Thursday night, it set up perfectly for the Bears to get a can't-miss, immediate-impact player at No. 8.

Pace went with the guy he thinks was the biggest playmaker left on the board after Tampa traded out of No. 7 and Buffalo went with a quarterback, leaving Pace with several really good options.

That was a huge break for the Bears.

And in a significant change from the past, Pace actually took the best player available in Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith, who should come in and help the Bears right away.

It's all part of a long rebuild that should have the Bears positioned perfectly to win double-digit games and the division in 2018.

Pace has the team and coaching staff he wants, and after four years of drafts and free-agent classes he should have four or five serious game-changers on each side of the ball ready to dominate the NFC North.

Add it up and you have a playoff team capable of making a serious run at the Super Bowl this year.

There simply aren't any excuses left to use.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.

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