ATLANTA — I was in a small conference room at Olivet Nazarene University in mid-July—at the very beginning of camp, before 30 teams had even reported—and Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace was telling stories. About a ceiling-to-floor whiteboard that coach Matt Nagy and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich were marking up nightly, Good Will Hunting style, with new ideas. About how Nagy kept two legal pads for watching college tape, one to take notes on players, the other to steal ideas for plays.
Pace just wanted to illustrate how excited he was about his new coaching staff.