Ryan Pace is now a senior personnel executive in Atlanta, and the importance of connections once again becomes apparent. Pace worked with Terry Fontenot in New Orleans for a long time and there’s no doubt Atlanta’s general manager wanted him to join the Falcons because he has a high opinion of his player evaluation acumen.
Whether that’s justified is up for debate—Pace was behind the utterly disastrous Mitch Trubisky pick, the Matt Nagy hire, and a lot of bad draft choices over the years even if he did nail a handful of free agent signings and a fair number of late round picks—but it’s clear that this front office will value Pace’s opinion.