Tag: Ryan Pace

Falcons promote Ryan Pace to vice president of football operations

Falcons promote Ryan Pace to vice president of football operations, announce multiple front office changes

On Monday, the Atlanta Falcons announced several changes to their front office and scouting department, including promoting Ryan Pace to vice president of football operations/player personnel.

Pace, the former general manager of the Chicago Bears, joined Atlanta’s front office in 2022. After serving one year as a senior personnel executive, Pace was promoted to director of player personnel before the 2023 season.

The Falcons also promoted Tokunbo Abanikanda to director of college scouting. Abanikanda has been with the team for 12 years, serving as Atlanta’s national scout since 2021. Check out the full list of scouting department changes below:

  • Ryan Pace: VP of football operations/player personnel
  • Tokunbo Abanikanda: Director of college scouting
  • Michael Ross: Assistant director of college scouting
  • Hakeem Smith: Pro scout
  • Stephanie Gutierrez: Senior director of football systems
  • Danny Leskin: Manager of football data science
  • Nathan Ellis: Scouting coordinator
  • Harrison Ritcher: National scout
  • Cami Pasqualoni: Scouting assistant
  • Kevin Weisman: Scouting assistant

Atlanta had a busy week, adding outside linebacker Matthew Judon and safety Justin Simmons to the 90-man roster. Head coach Raheem Morris said he will ease the two Pro Bowlers into things as the team gears up for the regular season in a few weeks.

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How Ryan Pace helped his former Bears team in 2024 NFL draft

The Bears received some help in the 2024 NFL draft courtesy of their old GM Ryan Pace, who’s now in the Falcons front office.

The Chicago Bears have come a long way since Ryan Poles took over for Ryan Pace as general manager. Things have been looking a lot better since the change was made.

Pace had a plan and stuck with it which is respectable but it just didn’t work out. Now, Poles seems to have this franchise pointed in the right direction. In just three offseasons, Poles has this team poised to contend for the playoffs.

Pace has been with the Atlanta Falcons front office since 2022, where he’s currently the director of player personnel. Pace found a way to help his former team during the 2024 NFL draft. They had a chance to select wide receiver Rome Odunze with the eighth overall pick, but they elected to go in a different direction.

Despite signing veteran quarterback quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive four-year, $180 million deal (with $100 million guarantee), Atlanta shocked everyone by drafting Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8. It was a very odd selection for the Falcons.

And it played right into Chicago’s hands as the Bears snagged Odunze at ninth overall. It might have made them a worse team. Only time will tell how much the Falcons helped the Bears, but it feels like they helped them a lot at the surface. And perhaps Pace gets a little credit.

Bears OL Teven Jenkins says he’s playing left guard in 2023

Teven Jenkins told Twitter he’s moving to left guard for the 2023 season.

It sounds like Teven Jenkins will be playing at a new spot on the offensive line when the Chicago Bears begin the 2023 season. Just ask him yourself.

On Sunday, the third-year offensive lineman was asked on Twitter where he was going to play this upcoming season. Jenkins responded with a link to a tweet by Bryson Stricker saying he would be moving to the left side of the line.

Stricker tweeted the move following the Bears’ signing of former Tennessee Titans guard Nate Davis last month during free agency.

Plans can always change and the Bears haven’t been shy about tinkering with their offensive line throughout the offseason since general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus were hired. But if the move takes place, it will be Jenkins’ third position change since coming into the league in 2021.

Jenkins was drafted in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft with the expectation of playing left tackle under former general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy. Injuries limited him to just a few games late in the year with up-and-down results. When the new regime took over last year, they tried him at right tackle before settling at right guard in training camp to begin the season.

Right guard appeared to be the best landing spot for Jenkins as he excelled at the position. He allowed just two sacks according to Pro Football Focus and was consistently effective as a run blocker. Injuries ended his season prematurely and now he will begin a new year at yet another new position. Davis, meanwhile, will start at right guard, where he’s played every year since coming into the league back in 2019.

Jenkins has shown the versatility to play wherever he’s needed and has the attitude to back it up. “I’ll play wherever they need me,” Jenkins told reporters last spring. “Get in where you fit in.” He’ll have his shot to fit in at left guard, which has been occupied by Cody Whitehair for the past few seasons.

This means Whitehair could move to center, which Poles suggested a few weeks ago in a press conference, or perhaps the two will battle it out to see who comes out on top at the position. Regardless, it will be another position for Jenkins to learn this offseason.

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Bears 2023 free agency preview: Angelo Blackson is out the door

Angelo Blackson went from Week 1 starter to healthy scratch as the year wore on. His days as a Bear are likely over.

NFL free agency will be here before we know it, and the Chicago Bears have plenty of players set to hit the market. From key starters to valuable reserves, general manager Ryan Poles will have important decisions to make about who to bring back.

Here at Bears Wire, we’re going through each individual player and breaking down their 2022 performance and whether or not they fit in the Bears’ long-term plans.

Our next player is Angelo Blackson, a defensive lineman who saw his snaps diminish as the season went on and is on his way out of Chicago.

Patrick Mahomes wanted to be a Chicago Bear, according to his father

Old wounds were ripped open on Monday as Patrick Mahomes’ father confirms the Bears told the star QB they were picking him back in 2017.

It’s been over five years since the Chicago Bears traded up one spot to select quarterback Mitchell Trubisky second overall, passing up on superstar Patrick Mahomes in the process. Mahomes of course was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs eight picks later and is now headed to his third Super Bowl in four years, while Bears fans everywhere have been left to wonder what could have been.

Rehashing the past gets old after a while and Bears fans have done their best to move on, but thanks to a new revelation by a member of Mahomes’ family, those old wounds were ripped open.

Fresh off celebrating the Chiefs’ 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game, Patrick Mahomes Sr. joined 670 The Score’s Parkins & Spiegel. After talking about the win, the conversation steered towards the infamous draft decision and Mahomes Sr. not only confirmed reports of the Bears’ interest in his son, but said he was told he would be going to Chicago.

“They told him they were going to draft him,” Mahomes Sr. said. “We thought he was going to be the third pick overall and go to Chicago. He had a great meeting when he went there and liked all the guys that were doing the stuff there and thought he was going to be a Bear. Then once they traded up and got Mitch, it kind of hurt him. It really did. He always knew that Kansas City had told him that they were going to come up and get him. They just didn’t know how far they’d have to go. But initially, he thought he was going to be a Chicago Bear.”

The Bears’ interest in Mahomes had already been documented, thanks to an in-depth piece on Bleacher Report that broke down the 2017 NFL Draft by Kayln Kahler in 2020. But hearing it from his father hits differently, especially knowing that he wanted to be a Bear.

“He definitely wanted to be there,” Mahomes Sr. said. “He liked everything about it and he was looking forward to going there. Who doesn’t want to be the first quarterback taken in the draft? It was definitely a situation where he thought he was going to be there and be there for a long time.”

The draft process that season was all over the place, with then-GM Ryan Pace reportedly going rogue by drafting Trubisky and not running the decision by his staff, including then-coach John Fox. Mahomes Sr. couldn’t identify which members of the Bears his son met with, just that he had met with multiple personnel over the course of the pre-draft process.

The sting of picking Trubisky over Mahomes will always be there for Bears fans in some way shape or form. Mahomes is likely on his way to winning his second Most Valuable Player award and is breaking records every season, all while still being just 27 years old. Trubisky, on the other hand, lasted just four seasons with the Bears with mixed results and is now a backup for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Mahomes Sr. likes what he sees from the Bears’ current quarterback Justin Fields.

“Ya’ll got a good one there,” Mahomes Sr. said of Fields as the hosts pined over the revelation. “He’s going to do some things. I like everything that he does and I think he’s going to be a hell of a quarterback.”

Fields isn’t in the same stratosphere as Mahomes and may never get there, but he showed flashes in his second season that at least helps ease the pain of missing on a generational quarterback five years ago. Mahomes and Fields are set to square off in 2023 for the first time in the regular season as the Bears will visit the Chiefs at some point next fall.

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20 most memorable moments that defined the Bears in 2022

From a regime change in January to trades in October, here are the 20 moments that defined the Bears in 2022.

2022 has been quite the year for the Chicago Bears. It began with sweeping changes to the front office in January, leading to a mass exodus of veterans in March, and ultimately resulting in a team that’s battling for the No. 1 overall draft pick by the end of December.

But while the Bears entered into a rebuild in 2022, they also saw the growth of quarterback Justin Fields, who became one of the most electric players in the league.

From free agency drama to training camp holdouts, here are the 20 moments that defined the Bears in chronological order.

Bears keeping Ryan Pace for an extra year was a blessing in disguise

Many wanted Ryan Pace gone after the 2020 season. Had that happened, there’s almost no way Justin Fields is a Chicago Bear.

It’s been about 10 months since the Chicago Bears parted ways with general manager Ryan Pace after a disastrous 2021 season. Hired by the Bears in in 2015, Pace took the team to its first division title three years later by building a staunch defense and pushing his chips in on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and head coach Matt Nagy.

The success didn’t last however and the talented roster became old and expensive quickly while the quarterback position suffered. Despite mounting pressure from the outside to make a change following an uneven 2020 season, the Bears opted to stick with Pace and Nagy for one more season.

That faith led to a massive trade during the 2021 NFL draft with the Bears moving up to select Justin Fields as their new future franchise quarterback. Pace would only get one season with him, however, as he was fired following Fields’ rookie year.

Now with the Atlanta Falcons as a senior executive, Pace will meet back up with the Bears when the two teams face off this weekend. His former team will look much different than it did even a year ago with many of his players already gone. The bad contracts that resulted in millions of dollars in dead cap space are still there, however, as the Bears were forced to deal with the decisions Pace made to extend his win-now window.

Knowing now that Pace couldn’t turn things around in 2021, one can argue he should have been let go earlier and the Bears’ rebuild would be two years down the road instead of one. But Bears fans should be thanking their lucky stars that didn’t happen and Pace was allowed to hang on for one more season. He may have given the Bears their best quarterback in team history.

Bear Necessities: Cordarrelle Patterson wants Roquan Smith to join Falcons

OK, Cordarrelle, we get it. You want Roquan Smith. There are no shortage of teams that do.

This is our online morning newsletter, Bear Necessities. Subscribe to get the latest Bears news delivered to your mailbox every day.

I’m sure Bears fans remember Cordarrelle Patterson well. Patterson, a two-time All-Pro with Chicago, was the league’s best return specialist and all-around playmaker. Not to mention he was a lovable guy.

But if you also remember, Patterson also took on the role of recruiter, where he wasn’t shy about trying to get players to come to the Bears.

Now, with the Falcons, Patterson is doing the same. Sort of.

When news broke that star linebacker Roquan Smith had requested a trade after contract negotiations reached an impasse, it didn’t take Patterson long to suggest Smith come home to Georgia, where he played college ball for the Bulldogs.

Patterson took to Twitter to not-so-subtly put it out there: “Roquan Smith is the tweet!!!!”

He also changed his profile picture to an image of Smith during his college days at Georgia.

OK, Cordarrelle, we get it. You want Smith. I’m sure there are no shortage of teams that do.

But the hope is the Bears, under new general manager Ryan Poles, and Smith manage to come to an agreement, as Smith has previously expressed his desire to play his entire career in Chicago.

Not that Smith can choose where he ends up — barring signing an extension with Chicago — in a potential trade. But that didn’t stop Patterson for putting the idea out there for Falcons brass, which happens to include former Bears general manager Ryan Pace, who drafted Smith back in 2018.

The Falcons have signed a lot of former Bears this offseason since Pace joined the front office. If there was anyone who would be interested in Smith — and willing to pay a high price — it’s Pace. Patterson was just reminding his former GM as much.

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Former Raiders LB Nick Kwiatkoski signs on with Falcons

After visiting the Raiders earlier this week, Nick Kwiatkoski gets his reunion but it isn’t with his former team in Las Vegas

Less than two months ago, the Raiders cut Nick Kwiatkoski, saving some $3.24 million against the cap and leaving behind $5 million in dead money. Now the former starter has finally found a new home.

Kwiatkoski had visited the Raiders most recently, in what looked like a potential return. But after testing the Las Vegas reunion waters, the former starter decided a reunion with his former GM in Chicago was his best option. Or perhaps his trip to visit his former team upped the Falcons’ offer.

Meanwhile the Raiders signed free agent Kenny Young instead.

The Raiders cleaned some house at linebacker this offseason, taking on a good deal of dead money in the process.

All three 2020 starters Kwiatkoski, Cory Littleton, and Nicholas Morrow were let go, while they added competition in the form of Young, Jayon Brown, Micah Kiser, and Kyler Fackrell.

Last season starters Denzel Perryman and Divine Deablo return as well.

What history tells us about Bears QB Justin Fields’ ability to succeed with a new regime

Justin Fields is the latest QB selected by a GM that was fired after drafting him. Here’s how other QBs have fared in similar situations.

As the 2022 NFL draft inches closer and closer, the Chicago Bears can check “quarterback” off their needs list as it has become abundantly clear from both new general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus that Justin Fields is their guy heading into the fall.

Fields of course was selected by former GM Ryan Pace when the Bears traded up to nab him in the 2021 NFL draft. But after just one season with him, Pace was fired, along with head coach Matt Nagy, for failing to show adequate growth and win enough games.

Fields is looking to build off an uneven rookie season that saw him throw for 1,870 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also coughed up the ball 12 times in 2021 and was beaten up in the pocket. But with a new offensive coordinator and different philosophy, the hope is that Fields develops into the dynamic franchise quarterback fans have been dreaming of for a lifetime.

Poles and Eberflus have publicly backed Fields as their guy heading into the 2022 season. But even with those assurances, some insiders aren’t convinced the new regime will stick with him for the long term.

One of them is Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who shared with 670 The Score’s Dan Bernstein Show earlier in the week that he thinks the Bears could look to distance themselves from Fields after this season.

“It feels like the Bears are deliberately taking a step back,” Florio said. “And the problem is usually teams do that when they don’t have a QB they believe in…Maybe that’s the hidden message here, that the new regime doesn’t believe in Justin Fields.”

Florio’s take was universally panned across social media, with fans and other media members having strong opinions. After all, Fields has been front and center since Poles and Eberflus were introduced in January. He spoke at the introductory press conference and both men have raved about how the Bears are “his team” as they prepare for the upcoming season. But if recent history is any indicator, Fields may not last too long with the new regime in place.

When the Bears decided to fire Pace at the end of the 2021 season, they chose to do so knowing that he had just mortgaged the future for a rookie quarterback. Now that same quarterback is under a new GM who, while still supporting him, didn’t choose him. Firing a GM after a season in which they selected a quarterback in the first round of the NFL draft isn’t exactly common, but it’s happened a few times in recent years.

Since 2010, five GMs were fired less than a year after they had selected a quarterback with a first-round draft pick, including the Bears and Pace. Of the previous four, none of the quarterbacks selected went on to earn a second contract with their original team.

Two other general managers, Rick Smith with the Houston Texans and Buddy Nix with the Buffalo Bills, stepped down due to other circumstances after selecting a quarterback in the first round, but were not included in this list.