Latest Signing Brings Chicago Bears Draft Plans Into Focus
One thing about GM Ryan Pace is that he is always a man with a plan. Each offseason isn’t just a series of separated events. It is using one method to serve another. Take his Chicago Bears draft plans of the past. Pace has stated time and again during his years as GM that his focus in the draft is to take the best players available. There’s just one problem with that.
How can a team take the best player available when he has so many needs? Pace’s solution to that each year has been simple and straightforward. Use free agency to fill as many voids as possible with cheaper veteran free agents. Then use the draft to secure your stars. After four years, it’s hard to say it hasn’t worked.
The Bears were 12-4 last season and won the division. They have one of the younger teams in the league headlined by a host of talent Pace drafted such as Mitch Trubisky, Eddie Jackson, Tarik Cohen, Eddie Goldman, Leonard Floyd and Cody Whitehair. All of them were secured using the same method of using free agency to narrow the draft focus.
Their latest move is the perfect reminder of that.
#99 is back!
We have signed Aaron Lynch to a one-year deal. pic.twitter.com/GGcGPnoHCH
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) April 1, 2019
Chicago Bears draft needs narrow further with return of Aaron Lynch
Nobody will say Aaron Lynch is a star in the making but he proved himself to be a competent #3 outside linebacker behind Floyd and Khalil Mack. It feels what was by far the biggest remaining need on the Bears roster. Suddenly every position group has at least some semblance of stability. There are still depth concerns but nothing that could be considered overly pressing.
That is no doubt exactly how Pace wants it. Now he is free to do what he aims to every year. Take the best player that is on the board with each pick. This is how he’s been able to secure a number of quality players with selections in the later rounds. The method will be put to the test this year as the Bears have only five picks with none in the 1st or 2nd. This is why they’ve been frantically busy meeting with prospects who could be available to them.
Jimmy Moreland, James Madison corner, has top 30 visits with Giants and 49ers and Bears #NFLDraftNews
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 1, 2019
#Oregon’s versatile DB Ugo Amadi, the 2018 Lombardi Award winner, is visiting the #Bears today on a pre-draft visit, source said. He’s got the #Jets and #Steelers this week, as well.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 1, 2019
Despite it being a draft that appears bland and pointless on paper, it’s one where Pace has a chance to prove once and for all that his method works. If he can somehow squeeze one or two good players from a draft consisting of no picks in the top 80 and only five overall? That would be a reminder of why he is the reigning Executive of the Year.