Adam Jahns; ‘We’re getting Justin Fields’:

[soulman]

 

 

‘We’re getting Justin Fields’: An exclusive look inside the tension, elation of Bears’ draft room

Adam Jahns May 12, 2021 204

https://theathletic.com/2578073/2021/05/12/exclusive-behind-justin-fields-selection-with-bears-gm-ryan-pace/

 

The flurry of phone activity that began the morning of the first day of the NFL draft ceased, at least momentarily. The televisions inside the draft room at Halas Hall were already turned down. Other conversations died down.

The Bears were on hold. All 20 eyes in the room fixated on the black landline phone on the desk of Joey Laine, Chicago’s director of football administration.

“That was a pretty tense moment,” Ryan Pace said.

The Bears’ general manager moved in close to Laine. So did head coach Matt Nagy, who swiveled his chair in between Pace and Laine, then didn’t move. “The draft room is silent,” Pace said.

Moments earlier, he asked Laine to call Giants assistant general manager Kevin Abrams to accept the deal proposed by New York GM Dave Gettleman.

Pace and Gettleman had worked out trade parameters for the 11th pick in one of their multiple phone calls earlier that day. Now the Giants were on the clock. Thirty seconds became one minute, and that became two. In the Bears’ draft room, it felt as if two hours had passed.

Abrams returned. This was it.

“Joey looks at me and gives me the thumbs-up,” Pace said. “And he says, ‘We got a deal.'”

There was still more to do. Laine called the trade into the NFL. The Giants did the same. The NFL provided confirmation, and the Bears were on the clock.

Pace turned to Nagy: “We’re getting Justin Fields.”

Nagy screamed out of happiness and excitement. Pace remembered hearing a swear word or two. Chicago’s brain trust shared fist bumps and bro hugs. It was a party.

“The moment just feels surreal,” Pace said. “It’s out of body.”

Champ Kelly, the Bears’ assistant director of player personnel, turned the draft “card” into the league from his computer. Bobby Macedo, Chicago’s scouting coordinator, got the new face of the franchise on the phone and handed it to Nagy.

It was 8:39 p.m. in the draft room, and Justin Fields was a Chicago Bear. In a conversation with The Athletic, Pace explained how a dream scenario became his team’s reality.

---

There was space on the ceiling-to-floor dry-erase board in Pace’s office for quarterbacks. And after the 2020 season, it was full of names separated into three columns — trade possibilities, potential free agents and draft prospects — then tiered from best to worst.

The Bears’ pursuit of a new quarterback began here in Pace’s office following an 8-8 regular season and a first-round playoff exit in Mitch Trubisky’s final year in Chicago. Pace and Nagy stared at the draft’s top quarterback prospects even though their chances of getting one seemed remote.

“I’m kind of telling Matt, like, ‘Realistically, these top quarterbacks, it’s a 5 percent chance, man. It’s a 5, maybe 10 percent chance,'” he said. “I’m just trying to set expectations.”

Nagy, for the most part, didn’t want to hear it, reverting to his default setting. “Matt’s an optimist,” Pace said. “That’s what I love about him. He’s always optimistic that somehow maybe there’s a way.”

But opening with the No. 20 pick presented a sobering reality. The Bears were good enough to make the postseason but in a bad position to select a top quarterback. Chicago’s focus turned to trades, then to the free agents. But plenty of teams wanted new quarterbacks, and they were aggressive in getting one. The Rams acquired Matthew Stafford; the Colts traded for Carson Wentz.

At 12:36 p.m. CT on Feb. 25 — just hours after a story on The Athletic detailed a rift between star Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seahawks organization — ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted that if “a trade were considered,” the only teams Wilson would “go to” were the Cowboys, Saints, Raiders or Bears. It was a message to the NFL. But why would the Seahawks want to trade Wilson?

There were more quarterbacks to consider in free agency, starting with Andy Dalton, Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Dalton was deemed the best fit — Chicago offensive coordinator Bill Lazor was previously Dalton’s play caller and coordinator with the Bengals — and he was the only free-agent quarterback with whom the Bears negotiated. On March 16, he agreed to a one-year deal worth $10 million.

“We’re excited,” Pace said of the organization’s thought process at the time. “We believed as an organization and as coaches and as scouts and as personnel that we could win games with Andy Dalton.”

The draft was next. When the first wave of free agency passed, Pace printed the draft order. He started circling teams that could potentially select a quarterback. He had to do it again after March 26, the day the 49ers traded up from No. 12 to No. 3 in a blockbuster deal.

“I remember sitting in here circling all the teams that could potentially want to acquire a quarterback,” Pace said. “It was a lot this year.”

---

On Nov. 30, 2019, Pace was in Ann Arbor, Mich., to see the Wolverines play rival Ohio State. He had seen Fields and the Buckeyes defeat Northwestern in Evanston the previous month, and while Pace didn’t know it at the time, he was lucky to be in the Big House. A pandemic awaited in 2020, and his ability to scout players would soon change.

In the third quarter, Michigan defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson forced Ohio State tight end Luke Farrell into Fields’ left leg. The quarterback fell awkwardly and was removed from the game after reaggravating an MCL injury suffered the previous week against Penn State.

At 3:54 in the third quarter, Fields returned with a knee brace. On second-and-10 from Michigan’s 30, Fields was flushed from the pocket. He scrambled to his left, turned as he reached the numbers and reset his feet before firing a touchdown pass to receiver Garrett Wilson near the back corner of the end zone.

 

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day would later describe it as a “magical moment … a Heisman moment.”

Other players didn’t have a chance to make an impression in person. Teams were restricted to five one-hour Zoom meetings with draft prospects, and Pace said the Bears hosted approximately 175 of them. At the Senior Bowl, Chicago conducted and recorded nearly 120 in-person interviews.

The interviewers varied for players, from scouts to scouting directors to coaches and coordinators, to Pace and Nagy, director of player engagement LaMar “Soup” Campbell and other staff members. But the Bears used nearly all their allotted Zoom time with Fields. “One of them was just one-on-one with Matt,” Pace said.

Nagy held a prominent place in the Bears’ quarterback evaluations, essentially transforming into another scout for the team.

“Matt gets really into it,” Pace said. “He’s been that way since we hired him. It’s not just quarterbacks. … He’ll actually write reports and put grades in and put them in our database. I don’t know how common that is for a head coach to have reports and grades in the database, but it’s important for him because he wants to be on record.”

Nagy is known for marking his favorite plays from draft prospects and showing them to others, just like Pace does. Sometimes, as personal favorites were discussed, their conversations included what Pace described as “propaganda.” But Pace and Nagy viewed Fields similarly, which made discussing him “easy and united.” Nagy also was equipped with what he heard from Ohio State’s Day, a benefit of their friendship.

Pace, Nagy and director of player personnel Josh Lucas went to North Dakota State to see Trey Lance on March 12, to Alabama to see Mac Jones on March 30 and to Ohio State to see Fields on April 12 (Kelly and Lazor attended Fields’ first pro day on March 30). Quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator John DeFilippo — “One of the best developers of quarterback talent in the NFL,” Pace said — was sent to other pro days.

“The amount of time that we spent talking about the quarterbacks this year was constant,” Pace said. “When we were traveling together, when we were meeting together, it’s constant discussions.”

Evaluating every prospect became more complicated due to the pandemic. The Bears relied on feedback from new staffers — offensive analyst Tom Herman (Texas), running backs coach Michael Pitre (Oregon State) and defensive line coach Chris Rumph (Tennessee) — who were recently in the college ranks.

Mark Sadowski, director of college scouting, watched Fields excel against Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Fields endured a jarring, illegal hit but returned and finished with six touchdown passes in a 49-28 win.

In all, 11 Bears staffers filed reports on Fields: Pace, Nagy, Lazor, DeFilippo, Lucas, Kelly and Sadowski, along with scouts Chris Prescott, Jeff Shiver, Scott Hamel and Brendan Rehor. “What was cool about it was the consensus and unanimous opinion on a player,” Pace said. “It’s hard to find that. And this is one where the bandwidth of grades and the consensus on these grades was one of the tightest of any player in the draft, from all of our coaches to every single scout.

“We have 11 reports on Justin Fields, and they all basically have him in the same area.”

---

 

Justin Fields racked up 63 touchdown passes and ran for another 15 scores in his 22 games with the Buckeyes. (Rick Osentoski / USA Today)

After being named the Bears’ general manager in 2015, Pace made Joey Laine one of his first hires. The two came up together with the Saints, growing close after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans ahead of the 2005 season. As Pace rose the ranks in scouting, Laine did the same in the same salary-cap world Saints GM Mickey Loomis came up in. “He’s just someone who I really, really trust,” Pace said.

With Chicago, Laine handles salary-cap matters, contract negotiations and trade projections for the NFL Draft.

“(Laine’s) basically taken the model and the blueprint that Mickey has used,” Pace said. “That’s kind of his foundation. Then him and I do it together and we go through it all and we tweak it.”

Pace and Laine, whose offices are next to each other, met frequently in the weeks leading up to the draft, but the Bears’ draft board isn’t set. Last-minute character updates had to be factored in. This year, gathering accurate and updated medical information proved to be more difficult because of the pandemic. Chicago held its final medical meeting on Thursday, April 22, a week before the draft, and according to Pace, “stuff was still coming in after this year.”

Pace and Laine discussed and analyzed trade scenarios based on where the Bears began in the draft. Laine can share everything he has digitally, but his work also took over Pace’s giant dry-erase board.

Laine wrote out the first round, picks 1 through 32, this year highlighting the Bears’ pick at No. 20. He projected trade possibilities for every selection in the first round, even the first overall pick, however unlikely that might be. The board includes what it will take to move up for or down from every pick. He did the same for the second round.

The Bears’ own points chart was an integral part of this process, but Laine also has a database of draft-day trades that spans 20 years. The players taken with previous picks were added to the board. For Laine, it’s a comprehensive project, and Pace wants to see all of it — all the time.

“We sit there in my office, Joey, Matt and I, and we just stare at that thing,” Pace said. “And we just talk hypothetically, ‘What if this happens? Would you give this? What if they said this?’ We do that for weeks.”

Lucas, Kelly, Sadowski and assistant director of pro scouting Jeff King were involved, too. This year, the Bears wanted to find a realistic area in the first round to move up to for a quarterback. “We’re going over all of that knowing what’s fair,” Pace said. “So then, when you’re working with these other teams, you’re presenting realistic offers and you know how far things can stretch. … For us, we knew there were a lot of teams that need quarterbacks, and this was a good quarterbacks draft. We knew what we’d be dealing with.”

The Bears anticipated Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson going first and second overall to the Jaguars and Jets, respectively, so the draft started with the 49ers’ quarterback selection at No. 3. Pace’s pre-draft work with Laine determined that trading up with the Falcons for the No. 4 selection would be too costly.

“The sweet spot to realistically get one of these quarterbacks, we thought, was going to be between eight and 12,” Pace said.

But Pace wanted to be careful. It was far too early for the Bears to call the teams with those picks (the Panthers, Broncos, Cowboys, Giants and Eagles). With the intense focus on quarterbacks, particularly in this draft, Pace hid his cards.

“Obviously we know that (other teams) know that the Bears can potentially be in the quarterback market,” Pace said. “But we held off on serious calls to teams in that sweet-spot range until Thursday morning, the day of the draft.”

---

A day before the draft opened, another domino fell.

Earlier in the month, the Panthers acquired Sam Darnold from the Jets for a sixth-round selection and second- and fourth-rounders in 2022. And the Wednesday before the draft, the Panthers traded Teddy Bridgewater to the Broncos for a sixth-round pick. Suddenly two teams that picked ahead of Chicago were potentially out of the quarterback market.

“Those two moves changed the dynamic a little bit,” Pace said. “It shifts it.”

The Bears were ready, though. Too many scenarios had already been talked through thoroughly. Their approach to the draft was separated into four parts, according to Pace:

1. Trade up into the “sweet spot” for a quarterback.
2. “Go up a little from 20 if there’s somebody there that’s kind of surprised us, that shocks us.”
3. Stay put at No. 20 and make the pick.
4. Trade back.

For Pace, the first round of the draft began Thursday at 7 a.m., when he arrived at Halas Hall. By 8:30 a.m., alone in his office, he started to make calls to the teams in the “sweet spot.” Laine and Kelly got busy, too. “The last thing I want is on Tuesday and Wednesday … headlines that the Bears are trying to trade up and just increase the demand,” Pace said. “That’s why we kind of held off to the morning of the draft to try and control it a little bit.”

The Panthers’ and Broncos’ trades for quarterbacks changed conversations, and Pace and Laine did their best to identify whether there was real interest in a trade down. Some teams didn’t want to move all the way back to No. 20, but the Bears were also offering a first-round pick in 2022. Pace and Laine determined that pick would be the foundation for all their trade conversations.

After San Francisco selected Lance, Pace knew there were some special players at other positions in this area of the draft. But the Bears also knew other teams were looming. Washington and New England needed quarterbacks, and they were in front of the Bears. After the draft, it was revealed that Minnesota was considering Fields at No. 14 if he was available.

“We’re always trying to speculate and predict, right? But you can get consumed by that,” Pace said. “That is in your head somewhere, but for us, it was more, ‘OK, this is the area where we think we can realistically go to, and this is what we’re willing to give up to do it.'”

Pace was ready to pivot based on what he heard over the phone and the significant work that preceded the draft, but he didn’t want to. “We walk into the draft room with a plan — and with Justin being our No. 1 target,” Pace said. “The odds of us getting him (are) probably not great, but that would be the best-case scenario for us if things fall the right way.”

---

The Bears’ draft room started to fill up an hour and a half before the draft. Only 10 people were allowed in because of pandemic restrictions: Pace, Nagy, Laine, Kelly, Lucas, Sadowski, King, Macedo, director of football systems Mike Santarelli and team president/CEO Ted Phillips.

Chairman George McCaskey was present at Halas Hall but in his own nearby office. Members of Nagy’s coaching staff remained in their respective offices down the hallway from the draft room. Pace flew in every scout and situated them in a room above the draft room.

In the Bears’ draft room is a screen that’s 25 feet wide and 7 feet tall. On the left-hand side is the draft clock from the league, along with the order of the selections.  The Bears’ board of available offensive players is in the middle. On the right are the defensive players. Above them are different video screens that can handle four live feeds. When picks are made, the players’ names are displayed in the draft order on the left-hand side, then automatically removed from the Bears’ offensive and defensive boards.

When it came to Fields, the Bears’ curiosity began with the Lions, the first team outside Chicago’s sweet spot for a trade-up in the first round. Penei Sewell was submitted as Detroit’s pick at No. 7, and the draft board changed to reflect it:

7 – Sewell, Penei

Then the Panthers …

8 – Horn, Jaycee

The Broncos …

9 – Surtain II, Patrick

And then … a trade.

Philadelphia moved up from No. 12 to No. 10. It was an interesting move. Divisional rivals not only traded with each other but leapfrogged another NFC East opponent, the Giants at No. 11, in the process.

What the heck is happening?

“You’re thinking that Philly could be coming up to take a quarterback,” Pace said.

The Bears touched base with the Eagles. Pace used his cell phone to connect with the Giants at the same time. New York wanted to see what the Eagles were going to do.

10 – Smith, DeVonta

The Giants were now on the clock. Pace told Laine to call New York. Abrams answered. It was time to finalize their trade. The Bears were put on hold. Moments later …

11 – Fields, Justin 

At 8:49 p.m. CT, the camera in the Bears’ draft room captured Pace and Nagy sharing a fist bump. Phillips then put his arm around Pace and embraced him. The more organic celebration — the one immediately following the deal with the Giants — never aired.

 

The Bears’ brass celebrates their Fields pick. (Courtesy of the Bears)

“That’s why on the TV it looks calm in our room, because the emotional moment had already happened,” Pace said. “That moment, when we knew we were on the clock, that’s when it’s like, ‘OK, man, we just pulled this off.'”

After the Fields selection, Pace and Nagy met with McCaskey together in his office.

“I remember walking in, and he was smiling,” Pace said. “It was more like, ‘Hey, we told you we’d work through this and we did. It came down to this moment.’ … None of that happens without Ted and George giving us the support, the autonomy and the flexibility.”

After chatting with McCaskey, Pace and Nagy visited with the assistant coaches in the hallway that connects all their offices. Receivers coach Mike Furrey was ready to play; defensive coaches clapped and cheered, too. Pace then met with his scouts on the third floor. Everyone was excited. The Bears had their next quarterback.

“It was just electric,” Pace said.

But there was more to do. Pace and Nagy returned to the draft room. The remainder of the first round played out. In less than 24 hours, the Bears would execute another trade-up in the second round. It was time to get their new quarterback some help.

 

[soulman]

Enjoy the excitement all over again as Adam Jahns gives us a blow by blow look the pick.

[Superman(DH23)]

41 minutes ago, soulman said:

Enjoy the excitement all over again as Adam Jahns gives us a blow by blow look the pick.

Thanks for the post, the article is I  the post twice btw

[BeaReylo]

Thanks for posting the article!

[Heinz D.]

7 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

Thanks for the post, the article is I  the post twice btw

[Superman(DH23)]

2 hours ago, Heinz D. said:

I used to call Jim Thome, Jimmy "2 times" back when he was w/ the Sox and would do spots on the afternoon saloon

[HuskieBear]

personally, i dont think you should post full articles to pay sites. i think a portion or two is fine, it diminishes the work that the writers put into and it makes it less likely people pay for their work.

one of my favorite writers/twitter personalities is shea serrano - he always says that if someone produces something you enjoy, support them so they can keep doing it. that always stuck with me. i've bought a hoge and jahns shirt, pre-ordered HIP-HOP (and other things), other swag from podcasts i like, etc...

just a personal opinion of mine. do what you want

[IotaNet]

1 hour ago, HuskieBear said:

personally, i dont think you should post full articles to pay sites. i think a portion or two is fine, it diminishes the work that the writers put into and it makes it less likely people pay for their work.

I hate paywalls. I despise them with the heat of a thousand suns. With that said, like everyone else, journalists - especially sports journalists - have had a really crappy go of it lately. (If you don’t believe me, research the recent bloodletting from Sports Illustrated or ESPN).  I’m not talking about the TV station or the Magazines but rather the average Joe writing columns. Once you get past the Peter Kings or the Steven A. Smiths, a lot of these folks are struggling.

I have no connection to any of these sites and I’m not a professional journalist but I would invite all of us to consider that many of these subscription sites are published by folks out here trying to keep their lights on. (And yes, I subscribe to The Athletic and a couple others.)

Just something to think about.

[Ty21]

I’m ngl im excited to have the 2nd best qb prospect on my board. And also ngl I didn’t expect the bears to draft a non white qb literally ever and I’m even more excited about that. I’m cautiously optimistic but more optimistic than I was with Tru. I felt like you could see in tru’s face on draft day that he didn’t have it. Fields looks like he is gonna play w fire, especially after falling in the draft. 

[Heinz D.]

18 minutes ago, Ty21 said:

I’m ngl im excited to have the 2nd best qb prospect on my board. And also ngl I didn’t expect the bears to draft a non white qb literally ever and I’m even more excited about that. 

Are you having an episode of some sort? 😁

Edited May 16, 2021 by Heinz D.

[soulman]

3 hours ago, HuskieBear said:

personally, i dont think you should post full articles to pay sites. i think a portion or two is fine, it diminishes the work that the writers put into and it makes it less likely people pay for their work.

one of my favorite writers/twitter personalities is shea serrano - he always says that if someone produces something you enjoy, support them so they can keep doing it. that always stuck with me. i've bought a hoge and jahns shirt, pre-ordered HIP-HOP (and other things), other swag from podcasts i like, etc...

just a personal opinion of mine. do what you want

Possibly, but I paid for a subscription to that site just so I could post the full article for you all.  I also gave credit to both author and site and posted a link for others who would like to subscribe to The Athletic.  I'm actually promoting their site by showing the quality and depth of the articles someone can expect from them. 

IMHO I paid for the right to share it here and will continue to pay each month throughout the season.   I didn't just kipe something for nothing.  I consider my $40 spent to be adequate enough for me to share one article.  So call it a free sample courtesy of moi'.

[soulman]

2 hours ago, Ty21 said:

I’m ngl im excited to have the 2nd best qb prospect on my board. And also ngl I didn’t expect the bears to draft a non white qb literally ever and I’m even more excited about that. I’m cautiously optimistic but more optimistic than I was with Tru. I felt like you could see in tru’s face on draft day that he didn’t have it. Fields looks like he is gonna play w fire, especially after falling in the draft. 

Congrats for saying out loud what many, including myself, have long thought to be the case.

Although GSH actually did draft the first black NFL QB that I'm aware of there's a good chance he was not drafted to play QB.  After that the only other one I can recall was Vince Evans in the '77 draft.  Add to that the fact that Pace did not even bother to interview Watson prior to the 2017 draft and we've never signed a black QB as FA and someone could certainly make a case for that being somewhat true.

[Superman(DH23)]

29 minutes ago, soulman said:

Congrats for saying out loud what many, including myself, have long thought to be the case.

Although GSH actually did draft the first black NFL QB that I'm aware of there's a good chance he was not drafted to play QB.  After that the only other one I can recall was Vince Evans in the '77 draft.  Add to that the fact that Pace did not even bother to interview Watson prior to the 2017 draft and we've never signed a black QB as FA and someone could certainly make a case for that being somewhat true.

The problem w/ this narrative is, its absolutely false.  First off, no Watson wasnt strongly considered by Pace, but Patrick Mahomes, a black QB, was.  And the Bears have brought in a FA black QB 20 damn years ago, just the wrong one in Kordell Stewart.  This is why narratives about racism should be strongly scrutinized.  Disproportionate outcomes do not automatically mean prejudice or bias.  One thing that the NFL found and is working on is the reason that there are not more minority HC hires, despite their efforts to manufacture them, is that their is a lack of minority coordinators and high level FO personnel.  That is why they have introduced this new process of incentivizing minority coordinator and FO development.  If you want to change the system, you have to start at the lowest levels.  Let's also not forget the Bears hired only the 3rd black HC EVER in the NFL again 20 damn years ago.  

 

Tldr; tired narrative is tired

[soulman]

7 minutes ago, Superman(DH23) said:

The problem w/ this narrative is, its absolutely false.  First off, no Watson wasnt strongly considered by Pace, but Patrick Mahomes, a black QB, was.  And the Bears have brought in a FA black QB 20 damn years ago, just the wrong one in Kordell Stewart.  This is why narratives about racism should be strongly scrutinized.  Disproportionate outcomes do not automatically mean prejudice or bias.  One thing that the NFL found and is working on is the reason that there are not more minority HC hires, despite their efforts to manufacture them, is that their is a lack of minority coordinators and high level FO personnel.  That is why they have introduced this new process of incentivizing minority coordinator and FO development.  If you want to change the system, you have to start at the lowest levels.  Let's also not forget the Bears hired only the 3rd black HC EVER in the NFL again 20 damn years ago.  

 

Tldr; tired narrative is tired

I'd forgotten about Stewart and it's entirely possible the narrative is false.  But given how many times the Bears have eschewed drafting black QBs even well after round one it's not as if no case could ever be made for it.  And while Pace may have had an interest in a far more experienced Patrick Mahomes he chose Mitch Trubisky instead which can only add to suspicions true or false.

You also relate to the fact that minority hiring at nearly all levels from coaching staffs to front office is lagging and that NFL is anxious to address this issue.  So it is being strongly scrutinized at every level to determine if some kind of predetermined prejudice or bias does exist. IMHO there must be an explanation for it somewhere if despite the NFL's efforts minority hiring is not increasing.

I'm not accusing the Bears of bias if only because there are all kinds of reasons why we've had few black QBs but those are facts that can't be avoided and for many they will raise questions even when you've hired a black HC.  IMHO coaches and QBs who may become the face of a franchise are seen quite differently by fans.  But if there ever has been a hesitation it no longer exists.

My reasoning behind commenting of Ty's post was not to make this a racial issue but simply to acknowledge suspicions that have either been whispered about of kept silent in the past.

[Superman(DH23)]

1 minute ago, soulman said:

I'd forgotten about Stewart and it's entirely possible the narrative is false.  But given how many times the Bears have eschewed drafting black QBs even well after round one it's not as if no case could ever be made for it.  And while Pace may have had an interest in a far more experienced Patrick Mahomes he chose Mitch Trubisky instead which can only add to suspicions true or false.

You also relate to the fact that minority hiring at nearly all levels from coaching staffs to front office is lagging and that NFL is anxious to address this issue.  So it is being strongly scrutinized at every level to determine if some kind of predetermined prejudice or bias does exist. IMHO there must be an explanation for it somewhere if despite the NFL's efforts minority hiring is not increasing.

I'm not accusing the Bears of bias if only because there are all kinds of reasons why we've had few black QBs but those are facts that can't be avoided and for many they will raise questions even when you've hired a black HC.  IMHO coaches and QBs who may become the face of a franchise are seen quite differently by fans.  But if there ever has been a hesitation it no longer exists.

My reasoning behind commenting of Ty's post was not to make this a racial issue but simply to acknowledge suspicions that have either been whispered about of kept silent in the past.

Look, if people want to talk about Warren Moon or Doug Williams not being high picks bc racism, I'm here for it, bc there is a lot of truth to it.  If people want to talk about "processing" being a dog whistle, again I'm here for it bc I witnessed it.  But Pace chose the QB who was widely regarded as the top QB prospect in his draft, to the point many pundits said he was the only one worth a first round pick, over a guy who wasnt coached properly, had a lot of Bret Favre in him, and was thought by most to be a supremely talented project, that's not racism, its making what looks like the right choice, but turns out to be the wrong one.  It's also why I changed the entire way I evaluate QBs, bc undeniable talent can be coached up, mediocre talent is at best going to turn out mediocre.

And the minority hiring situation, is currently an unfortunate remnant of the "good old days".   A lack of black QBs means a lack of black QB coaches, which means a lack of black OCs and in this era where you want a hot OC to come in and lead your team with a rookie QB to greatness, that in turn means a lack of black HCs.  It's no coincidence that nearly all black HCs have defensive backgrounds, but those times they are a changin.  We are probably just a few years at most away from Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton being hot HC names.  And it's only going to grow from there.  Tee Martin could be a HC candidate soon,  Mike Vick has expressed his desire to enter the coaching ranks.  As we see more black QBs proliferate college and the NFL, the coaches will move that direction as well.