LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) -- Halas Hall seemed to be a hopeless place a year ago despite the offerings of optimism from Bears general manager Ryan Pace.
The Bears had just fired veteran coach John Fox on New Year's Day morning 2018, with Pace's record as general manager the same 14-34 that led to Fox being fired. Because of that, the positive tenor in Pace's voice wasn't resonating.
"We have a young core coming up that's developing and we just need to continue to add to that," Pace said last January as he looked ahead to 2018. "There are some key positions that are going to take priority this offseason and, again, I feel really good about the resources we have -- healthy cap, top-10 pick, seven draft picks. We just need to attack it the right way."
Sure enough, Pace pulled it off. Every priority position was addressed. The healthy cap was used to sign key free agents in receiver Allen Robinson, receiver Taylor Gabriel and tight end Trey Burton as well as eventually pay All-Pro linebacker Khalil Mack a record contract for a defensive player. The top-10 pick was used on linebacker Roquan Smith, for whom Pace sees the sky as the limit. The seven draft picks all played, contributed and flashed a degree of potential.
And there was Pace on Monday afternoon, sitting alongside coach Matt Nagy and speaking again of why the Bears can grow from their 12-4 season, remain as NFC North champions and move beyond the wild-card round.
"We're proud of what we accomplished," Pace said. "But we're not satisfied."
The Bears' 16-15 loss to the Eagles in a wild-card game at Soldier Field and the "'me' thing" that kicker Cody Parkey did by appearing on the "Today Show" in the aftermath ended the 2018 season with disappointment. The words of Nagy made it clear that the defeat is still fresh. But with those exit interviews in Lake Forest last Monday, the Bears were forced to look ahead.
After completing a worst-to-first turnaround, they know their motivation must stay strong. The 2018 Jaguars just completed the inverse, going from first-to-worst after an appearance in the AFC Championship Game a year prior.
"We're all competitors and we all, in the end, want to be playing three more weeks down the road here from where we're at," Nagy said. "But our guys, one of the powerful things I took from our exit meetings, was they came away telling me truly how convicted they were in their feelings about us this year and where they feel we could have really went. And none of it was made up.
"That's why I'm so excited and it keeps you going, because we started something. We also go back, like Ryan said, you're either getting worse (or) you're getting better. I'm going to hammer that home, everything we did this past year, throw it out the window, it means nothing. Now we're 0-0, and that's the new challenge.
"We got the foundation. It's getting started. But it hurts, and I'll probably hurt more here in the next couple weeks watching more games. That's where we want to be."
The Bears' offseason doesn't project to be as busy and high-profile as last year's, but it will be crucial with the team in its championship window. The Bears traded their first-round and second-round draft picks in 2019 to the Raiders as part of the Mack deal -- "100 percent (worth it)," Pace said -- and are projected to have just shy of $19.7 million in cap room (assuming a $189,000,000 team cap total) this spring, according to Spotrac.
The development of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky could ultimately decide whether the Bears do win a Super Bowl championship in the years to come. The second overall pick in 2017, Trubisky was once Pace's greatest gamble and is Nagy's tallest task -- but that's only part of the equation this offseason.
The Bears have looming free agents in cornerback Bryce Callahan, safety Adrian Amos and right tackle Bobby Massie, plus several more, meaning there will likely be at least one cap casualty. The limited resources will make this offseason more challenging.
Pace reminded of his time as the Saints' director of player personnel in 2011, when New Orleans drafted running back Mark Ingram by trading its first-round and second-round picks in 2012. With less capital in that 2012 draft, the Saints still came away with a future Pro Bowl defensive tackle named Akiem Hicks, one of the core pieces now for the Bears.
"It's nice to be able to walk into a depth chart and not see green magnets over the whole board," Pace said. "We can kind of fine-tune and tweak as we go forward. We've got a lot of young guys, we have a lot of guys under contract and we've got a lot of guys hitting their peaks right now, but as we approach this offseason we're still going to be aggressive. We're always going to be pushing it, you know I think that's the challenge to our scouting department to always be improving our roster and that will be the focus."
Nagy called it a struggle to watch the four divisional round games this past weekend. He was left wondering how it all could've been different for his Bears, hating that he was on the couch and not the sidelines.
These Bears are a collective product of Nagy's personality and Pace's vision. Together, they have come a long way since last January.
With a young core still growing and a strong leader in Nagy, Pace feels confident in what the Bears can accomplish moving forward.
"We're always going to fight complacency and status quo," Pace said. "We're pushing every single day to improve this team and improve this roster, and that's the window we're in right now. I feel windows open and close. We're in a coaching window right now to improve our staff, and that's what's taking place. And then the player acquisition periods are going to open, and we're going to do everything we can to improve our roster.
"That's what is going to take to get us to the next step. But I just think naturally as we grow together in defensive schemes and offensive schemes, I'm so excited about this offseason, these OTAs, the training camp, to see that happen. I think we're at a point now again when you look at our roster, it's exciting for us as a personnel department to be aggressive, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. We can fine-tune and tweak and add the right pieces. We're at that stage right now, and that's exciting going forward."
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago's sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
