Pace and the Bears traded up 14 slots to the 73rd pick to select Iowa State running back David Montgomery, adding a versatile player to the team's offense. The interest was mutual, as Pace explained on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning.
"He kept on saying how bad he wanted to be here, too," Pace said. "Everything just kind of fit together. It's a player we targeted. It's a player that the scouts and coaches were on the same page with. When he was on the board and kind of falling down in the third round, that's when we knew we wanted to be aggressive. We moved up 14 spots and got a guy we were all excited about.
"We just knew that a player we really like was within reach. Operating with that no-regrets mindset. When you get a guy like that we all like, we're all on the same page with, you really don't want to risk it. The worst thing is to have a disappointed draft room. We wanted to ensure we're getting good players. That's why we moved up and were aggressive in doing it."
The Bears had done extensive work on this running back class knowing well the possibility that they'd move on from three-year starter Jordan Howard for a better fit in the backfield. They did just that in trading Howard to the Eagles in late March.
An option available for the Bears was Kareem Hunt, the league's leading rusher in 2017 who was released by the Chiefs last fall after an incident of assault against a woman. While Pace never ruled out the possibility of the Bears pursuing Hunt, they never aggressively pursued it. Hunt eventually signed with the Browns.
"Any time there's a player available, we talk about it internally," Pace said. "Obviously (coach Matt Nagy) knows that player and we talked about it, but it never really became heated for us. It was just more of an internal conversation. We kind of went a different path."
That different path led the Bears to Montgomery, whom many have compared as a player to Hunt.
Now, the Bears' backfield includes Montgomery, Tarik Cohen and Mike Davis as the prominent figures. Who will be the starter of the group?
"All these guys bring so many different things," Pace said. "That's what I love about coach Nagy and our offensive coaches, is they're going to use all of them. That's exciting for us as we look at the depth chart and we look at the depth chart and see Tarik and Mike Davis and David Montgomery. We've talked about how we can use Cordarrelle Patterson, and we're excited about Kerrith Whyte, who we drafted in the seventh round. There's just a number of ways we can use these guys."