Bears general manager Ryan Pace spoke to WBBM 780 AM and 105.9 FM play-by-play announcer Jeff Joniak before Saturday night's preseason game against the Cardinals. Here's the transcript of that interview:
On what Pace expects from the No. 1 offense:
"We're looking for them to get in a rhythm. Obviously last week the whole entire offense needs to play better and they know that. We're looking for a rhythm. They've had a good practice this week. Things have been more in sync. We need to get the running game going. And this will be an important evaluation.
On the buzz created by Mitch Trubisky:
"Definitely it's excitement. You could feel it in the stands, you could feel it in the crowd. The good thing about Mitch is he's pretty even keeled. So whether it's prosperity or adversity—which both are going to come through your career—I think he's got the mindset where he can handle both and persevere through both."
On the addition of kicker Roberto Aguayo:
"I think you go back and we did this and look at our college grades on Roberto and obviously (we had) very good grades on this player and around the league I think that was the case. So to give a guy another opportunity, kind of a fresh start. You've seen kickers through their careers kind of get themselves out of some lulls and hey the main point is we look around this roster and the one thing we've talked and stressed is we want to create competitive situations at every position and that's no different for kicker."
On the need to have competition throughout the roster:
"You feel it and I think it's important all the way down to when we're talking about roster spots 85, 86, 87, 88, 89. I think even at the bottom of the roster it's important. It just raises the play of everybody. Let's go back to the kicker situation. You see Roberto get here and I don't think Connor [Barth] has missed a kick since. So everybody responds to competition. It makes everybody better, and it's good to see."
