As crazy as it may seem, newcomer Darnell Mooney saved Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace’s jobs this year?
When asked why he believed Nagy and Pace were making significant progress towards winning a Super Bowl, George McCaskey pointed to important personal decisions, such as writing Mooney in the fifth round of the 2020 draft.
“We added more talented players this year,” said McCaskey. “Darnell Mooney is a good example. An inferior draft choice that Ryan and Matt discovered, which blossomed this year and became an important part of our attack.
“We need to continue doing more of this.”
Mooney was a player of great impact in the attack this year, jumping Anthony Miller and Riley Ridley in the depth table. He caught 61 balls for 631 yards and four touchdowns. These 61 catches broke the record for the Harlon Hill franchise for most novice receptions in 1954.
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Realistically, Mooney alone did not save Pace’s job. Throughout his tenure, Pace showed a tendency to choose well in the intermediate draft rounds. Other notable selections include David Montgomery (No. 73 in total), Eddie Jackson (No. 112 in total), Tarik Cohen (No. 119 in total) and Bilal Nichols (No. 145 in total). By the end of this season, Javon Wims (No. 224 overall) looked like a steal as well.
But for every big choice in the middle of the round, there is a terrible choice to deny it. Sure, Roquan Smith (8th overall) showed the qualities of a key player after a successful campaign in 2020. But Mitchell Trubisky (No. 2 overall), Kevin White (No. 7 overall), Leonard Floyd (No. 9 overall ) were all arrested. When you have the opportunity to choose from the top 10, you need to hit an impact player. Unfortunately for the Bears, Pace gave three of his four chances.
But if there was ever a position to make up for those losses, it’s the quarterback position. Once again, Pace – and to some extent Nagy – failed several times to get it right. Nagy certainly had nothing to do with hiring Mike Glennon, but he was hired to develop Trubisky. That was a failure. In addition, he collaborated with Pace to switch to Nick Foles, who looked even worse than Trubisky at times this season.
For all these failures, the pair will have the chance to collaborate again to correct the defender’s position. Maybe they get some intermediate draft choices right too.