Rozner: Bears' Pace might be finally admitting mistakes
Welcome to the sixth year of the Ryan Pace Rebuild.
It's the one in which there might finally be hope because Pace has accepted the fact that he's terrible at his job, and his only chance to succeed is to acquire players other teams have identified, drafted, signed and watched perform at a high level.
And you have to believe Matt Nagy has played a big role in convincing him that the players Pace drafts and loves are generally bad at football.
There's no other explanation for suddenly coming to terms with the notion that Mitch Trubisky, Leonard Floyd and Adam Shaheen are not the answer to any question, unless that question is, “Who are some of the worst draft picks in Bears history?”
We'll not spend time reminding you of Kevin White, the very first Pace selection (seventh overall) for a team in total need of a rebuild six years ago, when the offensive and defensive lines were looking at a complete overhaul.
Apologies, guess we just reminded you.
In any case, this had to be Nagy telling his GM the truth, that a Super Bowl-caliber defense was getting older by the day, while Trubisky was getting worse by the week.
Pace never falls out of love with his projects, so one must assume his head coach gave it to him straight.
And repeatedly — until it finally hit home. When there is no truth to power, nothing changes. These are big philosophy changes.
In 24 hours, the Bears added a dynamic pass rusher in Robert Quinn to play opposite Khalil Mack, and a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in Nick Foles.
No, he's not Tom Brady and he's far from perfect. At times, he can be quite average — or worse.
But Foles has won 4 playoff games and a Super Bowl in the last three years. The Bears have won 6 playoff games since their only Super Bowl victory 35 years ago.
One of those Foles victories was with a beat-up and battered Eagles team that walked into Soldier Field in January 2019 and defeated the Bears in the only 60 minutes of playoff football Trubisky has ever played.
The Bears managed to put most of the blame on kicker Cody Parkey for his infamous miss, while pretending that Trubisky wasn't awful — when he could have easily thrown 4 picks in the first half of that nightmare.
The 31-year-old Foles also has a history with much of the Bears' coaching staff, playbook and terminology, having been with Nagy twice (Eagles and Chiefs), coordinator Bill Lazor (Eagles) and QB guru John DeFilippo, who was in the same job with the Eagles in 2017.
That was the year in which Foles took over for an injured Carson Wentz with four games to play and won three playoff games, ultimately named Super Bowl MVP.
That is one of the great and surprising QB stories of the last decade.
That was also a time in which DeFilippo seemed like the logical candidate to replace John Fox. That job went to Nagy, who has at times seemed as clueless as his general manager, but right now he's a hero.
Of course, the Bears will deny his influence here, that Pace is willing to admit his massive number of mistakes, but these immense changes and the urgency to win immediately have to be at the behest of Nagy.
There seems no other reason for Pace's sudden shift in thinking, when he has been so impossibly obtuse in evaluating his own players.
There's also no guarantee here of anything, but the Bears are closer to a Super Bowl than they were 24 hours ago.
That's good because the clock is ticking.
The team that many thought could have won a Super Bowl in 2018, if only they had a quarterback, is two years older.
Father time is undefeated and Mack, the most important player on this team, is 29, having looked quite ordinary for long stretches last season.
He has help now, both on defense and offense.
If the NFL starts on time this year — and it's difficult to predict anything right now — there is reason again to be mildly optimistic about the Bears.
Good news is hard to find these days. We'll take it.