Fair point....the defense is awesome and Pace gets credit.
I'm not down on Roquan Smith...he just had a peculiar year. We've certainly seen him play really really well.

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It's very hard if not impossible to sustain a great defense beyond a 2-3 year window, and we already see it slipping, so this is a moot point.

I also find your characterization of delaney's posts kind of bizarre. He's pretty reasonable, especially compared to many folks here.

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He's unreasonable on a specific point (pace). Today is the first time I heard him acknowledge that Pace did a decent job on d. Good for Delaney.

To slip from 1 to 4 or whatever is negligible. They're going to be top ten ish again next year. You don't have a point here.

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To go from the best D of the past 5 years to not a top 5 defense this year is not a negligible difference. You have a poor understanding of the point you are attempting here.

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Yes it is. Do you really think the bears D prevented them from reaching the playoffs this year? They have a better d than some of the teams in the playoffs. That's why the slippage didn't matter - they are still good.

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Of course. If they were as good as they were last year then they would have made the playoffs again this year. That's where your negligible point falls apart.

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You're smarter than to just trot out an obvious fallacy like that and expect it to stand on its own merit. Bored while waiting for the GB game this weekend? I feel that.

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It is certainly not impossible. Difficult? Sure. If it were easy everyone would do it. But there are plenty examples of consistently good or even great defenses in the modern era.

The Bears have had a great defense basically every year since 2000 except the brief interlude of Emery and Trestman deciding to consciously destroy it and the subsequent years of Pace and Fangio having to rebuild it. Bears are a bit anomalous I guess in that regard, certainly not alone. Generally you'll find the Ravens, Bears, Patriots and the Broncos near the top most years. Even Pittsburgh is climbing back.

There is something to there being cosmic fate in the NFL. I used to have a theory that the home field advantages guided the destiny of franchises (you'll notice the consistently good defenses are all cold-weather outdoor stadiums) but even that falls apart on closer scrutiny.

The Bears were very obviously a top-five defense this year.

Bears and Pats have each had the worst defense in the NFL at different points in the last 10 years.

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I think the Bears were actually quite bad under Lovie of all people for a brief period. Maybe immediately following the SB. Wanna say around 2007-2009. Then he got things back together for the NFC championship season and then his last season, though they understandably never reached the heights of 2005-2006 again. If i recall correctly.

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They slipped statistically and the Year Without Urlacher was rough, but they consistently pretty terrifying throughout the entirety of the Lovie years.

It was not until Emery tore everything down to the studs that they really fell below anything that you could reasonably describe as a "good" defense. The Urlacher/Briggs/Tillman core held it down for basically a decade.

May want to put down the Bears Kool-Aid for a bit. He only drafted 3 or the 11 starters on D and..well let's not even talk about the draft picks on O. No high round picks on OT and very few offensive line picks overall? He has done a good job of signing vet FA's which teams that draft poorly must do to cover up draft failures.

Lovie kept the defense competitive and a SB loss but the Pack and Vikings stuck it up our ass for many years.

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Mack, Dix, Amukamara, and Travathan are FAs/trades. Fuller was a Emery pick. Everyone else (Nichols, Goldman, Floyd, Smith, Jackson, etc.) is a Pace pick.

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True but as a fan it's probably the best era since Ditka, which I didn't experience.

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Fuller may have been an Emery pick but Pace stuck with him through a time when it looked like he was an utter bust. Whatever credit you take away from Pace for not drafting Fuller you have to give back for the foresight to keep him around and the work he did with the transition tag that played out nearly perfectly.

He drafted Whitehair and Daniels both in the top-fifty.

I don't disagree. Just pointing out that Clawmaster's post seems to be inaccurate.

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My thought is that a trade for Mack should be a finishing piece. You don't trade for him and then figure the QB out. QB should come first.

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Idk, man. If that kick isn't blocked last year they're in the next round and who knows what happens. This year they did their job on defense but the offense failed them. If anything it's the (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky trade that's dragging us down and not the Mack deal. As a fan, I'm glad we've got Mack to add to the other pieces for next year.

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LA went to the Super Bowl with a quarterback who is really not appreciably better than (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky. The year before Nick Foles won the thing. (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky can play up to those standards, I am very certain of it.

The Bears were itching for another crack at the Rams last year. We were their boogeymen. That kick goes in and I think our ticket to the NFC Championship game was booked.

We're gonna disagree on (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky but I agree we had a good shot against the Rams.

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I wouldn't have traded up that year, nor would I have drafted (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky either. I laughed on draft day and I laugh now.

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We had two rookie GMs who are guilty of reaching (Shea and a guy like Shaheen). I won't say (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky was a reach because there was no clear consensus first pick QB between him and the other two, but he got embarrassed on the trade. To me you just don't do that. I didn't like (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky because of the lack of experience, the pedigree (UNC?), and the fact that he didn't beat out the other no-name QB for the starting job. Very odd. But again the draft experts had him high along with the other two. Just reinforces how drafting is mostly a crapshoot.

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Inaccurate as opposed to what? Teams that are built for long term success do not celebrate when the GM is only able to pick less than half of the defensive starters. Plus, the players you cite all took steps backwards this year, hardly a reason to celebrate. There is also the fact that Pace does not seem to value the OT position, good GM's will draft college OT's repeatedly to see if they have the skills to play the position at the NFL level, if they don't they can usually move inside and play guard. Pace makes the mistake many short term GM's make, they draft combine warriors they feel have "high ceilings", drafting athleticism over proven college performance (White, Mitch, Shaheen, Floyd, Iggy, Fitts, Whyte, and Denmark). My original post pointed out that you are better off drafting a TE that has played at high level college program (Kittle, Ertz, Andrews) than picking or signing a project. I guess we can agree to disagree on that concept.

Kevin White had 1500 yards receiving his last year at WVU. Is that not proven college performance? That's more than Micheal Crabtree, the guy who rewrote the receiving recordbook, had in his last year before the draft.

And if we are going to complain that the likes of Stephen Denmark and Kylie Fitts being drafted in the sixth round and not becoming all-pros is proof that Pace has no idea what he's doing...well that's basically saying you will be dissatisfied with any GM the Bears hire. Everyone draft busts. Even the Shaheen pick, though bad, is not really one that should cost him his job or particularly indicative of Pace's supposed desire to be the smartest guy in the room. Pace mostly drafts chalk. White, Smith, Floyd...none of those picks were even remotely surprising.

You honestly think (Pro Bowl QB) Trubisky will put up comparable stats to Goff's Super Bowl year stats?

I dont give a hoot in hell about fucking stats.

You just said you are certain he can play up to those standards. What are you going to use to compare?