I get the feeling that Pace may be a bit of a gambler

Ryan Pace’s decision to sign Jimmy Graham might be his most bizarre as Bears’ GM — and that’s saying something

How Pace still has a job isn’t even a question, not if you’ve followed this franchise for part or all of the past three decades. These are the Bears.

By Rick Morrissey@MorrisseyCST Mar 20, 2020, 1:19pm CDT

This man, Bears general manager Ryan Pace, gave fading tight end Jimmy Graham a two-year, $16 million contract.Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

When Bears general manager Ryan Pace came up with the bright idea of signing the chalk outline of Jimmy Graham’s career to a two-year, $16 million contract, he almost certainly ran it past team chairman George McCaskey.

A normal franchise would have had checks in place to stop a plan to give a 33-year-old tight end in
the last days of his career $9 million in guaranteed money. A normal franchise would have said to Pace, “While you’re sheltering in place, you might as well resign in place.’’

But as we all know, this is not a normal franchise. Pace’s biggest mistake to date has been his decision to trade up to choose Mitch Trubisky with the second overall pick in the 2017 draft. But his decision to sign Graham, and overpay for him, might be his most bizarre. The scary part is that there isn’t anyone to stop Pace from himself. Certainly not McCaskey.

The Graham signing is another example of the GM overreaching. He did it when he gave unskilled quarterback Mike Glennon $18.5 million in guaranteed money in 2017. Glennon started four games as a Bear. Pace did it when he traded up to get Trubisky — when trading up apparently wasn’t necessary to land the quarterback. And he did it again by overpaying for an aging tight end coming off three unremarkable seasons when no one else seemed to be looking for an aging tight end coming off three unremarkable seasons.

How Pace still has a job isn’t even a question, not if you’ve followed this franchise for part or all of the last three decades. The logical question, going by Bears logic, is when Pace will get another contract extension. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but only a little one. I put nothing past this organization.

Understand that McCaskey and team president Ted Phillips never want to make changes on the football side of things. They don’t know football, and they at least pretend they know they don’t know football. The problem is that, when the time comes to make a change, they don’t seem to know anybody who knows football. They are like lost sheep in those moments.

That’s how you end up with Phil Emery and Pace as GMs.

People will be quick to point out that Pace was the 2018 NFL Executive of the Year. That was on the merit of trading for offense-disrupter Khalil Mack, and there was no denying the impact of the move on a 12-4 season. But then came 2019, an 8-8 record and a free fall in Trubisky’s development. That Executive of the Year award was etched in talc.

In any other city, Trubisky would have been on his way out of town this offseason. Any other team would have seen how imperative it was to find a quality replacement for him, if for no other reason than perception. Sending the message that it’s business as usual is bad business.

When word leaked Monday, the first day of the NFL’s legal tampering period, that the Bears were talking with the Saints’ Teddy Bridgewater, many a “Hallelujah’’ were heard around Chicago. Bridgewater had gone 5-0 in relief of an injured Drew Brees in 2019, including a victory over the Bears. He would be an obvious upgrade over Trubisky.

Instead, he agreed to a contract with the Panthers, who finished 5-11 last season. In Chicago, the day started with the possibility of Bridgewater and ended with the reality of Graham. In their own tortured way, the Bears never disappoint.

Instead of signing Bridgewater, they traded a fourth-round pick to the Jaguars for Nick Foles. Foles has had one very good year as a starter (2013) and one incredible playoff run (in the 2017 season), when he won the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award. The rest of his eight-year career is a lot of meh.

The debate in Chicago is over what the trade means. One side believes that Pace brought in Foles to replace Trubisky. The other side believes that Pace can’t let go of the idea of Trubisky and only acquired Foles to push Trubisky to be better. I think it’s the latter, but I’m holding out hope that coach Matt Nagy has had it with Trubisky’s inconsistency and wants Foles under center to start the season.

Whichever the case, the Bears are where they always are, with a major question mark at quarterback. This time, it’s because the GM got it wrong in the draft three years ago. He didn’t get one of the top two or three quarterbacks available this offseason, either. Instead, he traded for a toss-up of a quarterback who might or might not be throwing to a tight end who will turn 34 in November.

Of course he did.