Bears GM Ryan Pace's Dumb Decision to Release Trey Burton Early and Save Less Money is Another Stain on His Resume

The championship window for the Chicago Bears is on the verge of closing. The lack of progression of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is the main factor, but he's not the sole reason for the Bears' inability to make a huge playoff run. That would be general manager Ryan Pace, who has swung and missed on a variety of players, with the latest being tight end Trey Burton.

On Friday, the Bears officially released Burton from his contract, which freed up a grand total of $1.05 million in cap space, which is far less than what the team could have saved if he made the decision after June 1.

A standard release of Trey Burton creates just $1.05M of cap space for Chicago, while releasing Burton with a post-June 1 designation would free up $2.8M in space.

Prior to this, Chicago had 10 - 10 - tight ends on its roster. https://t.co/U0s3c2PbFx
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 17, 2020

Not the brightest move on Pace's part. He couldn't just wait two more months until handing the tight end his walking papers?

Burton was coming off a Super Bowl LII victory with the Philadelphia Eagles in which he threw the "Philly Special" touchdown to current Bears signal caller Nick Foles. Luckily for Burton, that was his contract year and he cashed in with Chicago on a four-year, $32 million deal. Burton did shine in his first season with the Bears, but he fell off a cliff this past season due to injuries.

Three months after the conclusion of the 2019 regular season, Pace confusingly opted to sign declining tight end Jimmy Graham to a deal that shockingly included a no-trade clause. That move even made Green Bay Packers fans scratch their heads.

And as a result, Burton was shown the door a full month later.

Ryan Pace whiffed on Kevin White, Leonard Floyd, Mitch Trubisky and Adam Shaheen, just to name a few, and in turn had to overspend in free agency and spend draft capital to fix his mistakes, which hasn't exactly worked. At this point it's clear to me that a change at GM is needed https://t.co/VzGO4oDQfs
— Tyler Woods (@Tylow237) April 17, 2020

Now that Burton is released, he joins the long list of choices that blew up in Pace's face. How many chances is Bears ownership going to give Pace before finally wisening up and parting ways with him? That could very well happen next season if the Bears fail to take a step in the right direction.