Pace has chance for redemption as he looks for wide receiver upgrades for Bears

Whether it's Mitch Trubisky, Andy Dalton, Marcus Mariota or the ghost of Sid Luckman quarterbacking the Bears in 2020, he'll require more juice at receiver to better arm an offense that exploded at an NFL-low seven percent clip last season.

As they were readying to run really, really fast at the combine, the WR position appears to be the most logical place in the draft from which the Bears can import tangible speed - in many ways, something GM Ryan Pace has fruitlessly attempted for even longer than solving the franchise's perpetual QB riddle.

Pace's first-ever draft pick with the Bears, No. 7 overall in 2015, was spent on size-speed freak Kevin White, who ran a 4.35-second 40-yard dash at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds after his prolific final season at West Virginia. White never made it to his first training camp healthy, however, and currently is unsigned at age 27 after receiving more surgeries on his leg (2) than NFL touchdowns (0).

Fair or not, Bears fans won't soon forget Pace's failed first pick.

Yet few remember that the general manager's first-ever acquisition with the Bears actually was another speed receiver, former Texas QB convert John Chiles, who signed a futures contract in Jan. 2015 after initially joining Pace's Saints as an undrafted rookie years earlier. Chiles arrived in Austin more than a decade ago with sub-4.3 wheels.

Chiles, like most futures signings, didn't pan out. But Pace's Bears have spent far greater resources, also to no avail, in search of the speed threat in the WR corps that's essentially been absent on a consistent basis here since Willie Gault in the 80s: Eddie Royal, Markus Wheaton, Taylor Gabriel, Cordarrelle Patterson, among others.

With more consistent quarterbacking, would the results be different? Sure, it's possible, if not probable. But that's a different story for a different day (or seemingly the same day because we've been writing on the Bears' QB conundrum what feels like daily this offseason).

And perhaps we're putting the cart in front of the horse discussing receivers, with Pace clearly prioritizing the procurement of a Trubisky lifeline a few weeks from now. Such is life on the Bears beat this offseason and the NFL beat every offseason, when free agency precedes the draft yet draft interest always arrives early and with a fervor.

And the Bears don't have the cap space to target their speed receiver in free agency anyhow, especially ahead of a draft brimming with WR talent. Indeed, after missing on the size-speed freaks like White and Patterson, and the diminutive dynamos like Royal and Gabriel, Pace should have his best shot yet in April at redemption.

We also should point out that his Bears hit a home run with Allen Robinson, for whom the Bears internally are discussing an extension, and the jury's out on Anthony Miller. Those incumbents, while unlikely to ever scorch defenses routinely downfield, are among Pace's two more rounded receiver acquisitions to date. They might be long-term building blocks, but adding foundational speed is a must to maximize the unit.

Could that missing piece be Denzel Mims of Baylor or KJ Hamler of Penn State, potential second-round targets we first posited last week, prior to the former eviscerating the combine and the latter opting to wait until the Nittany Lions pro day to perform?

Two receivers we've yet to discuss, Notre Dame's Chase Claypool and USC's similarly-big-bodied-but-not-quite-so-fast Michael Pittman, could provide Matt Nagy the mismatch threats that were lacking throughout the offense last season. Michigan's Donovan Peoples-Jones, who has a notable Bears connection, is another Day 2 name to file away.

We also shone a light in Indy on a few Day 3 guys who validated their inclusions with strong workouts, Texas' Devin Duvernay and Miami's Jeff Thomas. After making some money at the Combine, Memphis' versatile playmaker Antonio Gibson and John Hightower of Boise State, where we'd expect the Bears to be scouting hard with OT Ezra Cleveland and EDGE Curtis Weaver also potential matches, join our watch list.

Time is increasingly thin for Pace and Matt Nagy to fix their lagging Bears offense. The QB decision looms largest, but a fast turnaround likely also requires a speedier WR corps. Tick tock.