The Colts’ Chris Ballard and the Bears’ Ryan Pace split the NFL’s two Executive of the Year Awards last offseason. Based on his team’s dramatic turnaround and the Khalil Mack trade, Pace won The Sporting News award, voted on by other general managers.
Ballard took home the Pro Football Writers Association crown for two reasons: the Colts reached the playoffs after being left at the altar by coach Josh McDaniels and accomplished they couldn’t under Ballard’s predecessor, keeping Andrew Luck upright.
It reinforced a lesson the Colts learned too late and the Bears would be wise to keep in mind: it’s one thing to invest in a quarterback, but another to protect him.
The Colts didn’t do the latter until last year. The damage, though, had been done.
Luck retired Saturday night, saying he could no longer stomach the “unceasing and unrelenting” cycle of “injury-pain-rehab.” Luck was diagnosed with a calf strain in March and said Saturday he was dealing with a high ankle sprain and a posterior ankle impingement, too.
Ballard — the former Bears executive hired by the Colts in January 2017 — aggressively built up the offensive line. He used the sixth pick in 2018 on Notre Dame’s Quenton Nelson, making him the highest-drafted pure guard in modern NFL history.
A round after he drafted Nelson, Ballard took standout right tackle Braden Smith. A year earlier, Ballard claimed guard Mark Glowinski off waivers from the Seahawks. He played so well the Colts gave him a three-year contract extension.
The three were teamed with two first-round picks from the Ryan Grigson era — Anthony Castonzo and Ryan Kelly — to form a formidable starting lineup. At one point last season, Luck went 239 pass dropbacks without being sacked. Luck was sacked half as many times — 1.1 per start — than the 2.2 he averaged from 2012-17.
During those six years, Luck was sacked 156 times over 70 starts. He was sacked 41 times two different seasons — and didn’t make it through two more.
Luck sprained his shoulder early in September 2015, missing two games. A month later, he was lost for the rest of the season when he lacerated his kidney and tore an abdominal muscle against the Broncos.
He had shoulder surgery in January 2017 and did not play the entire season. The Colts quarterbacks who did were sacked an NFL-high 56 times.
The damage done prompted perhaps the most surprising NFL retirement since Barry Sanders 20 years ago. The brevity of his career rivals Bears legend Gale Sayers, who ravaged by knee injuries and also retired after seven incomplete seasons. The what-if questions Luck leaves behind rivals those of former Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, another high pick whose flawless technique portended a Hall of Fame career.
What manager Dusty Baker’s overuse was to Prior’s arm, the Colts’ offensive line was to Luck’s shoulder. And kidney. And calf.
The Bears’ No. 1 job is to make sure their own high pick — quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who boasts more elusiveness than the heavy-legged Luck — never joins that list.
Pace has spent years taking steps to try to ensure just that.
Pace coveted Nelson, but when the Colts took him two spots ahead of the Bears, he pivoted to draft center James Daniels in the second round.
Three years ago next week, Pace signed right guard Kyle Long to a four-year, $40 million extension. Two years ago last week, he gave left tackle Charles Leno $38 million over four years. In January, right tackle Bobby Massie got $30.8 million over four years.
Pace talked Long into taking a pay cut this offseason and, last week, restructured Leno’s deal to create more salary cap space. He figures to use that money to extend let guard Cody Whitehair — who is entering a walk year — before the first snap of the season opener.
If Pace is to repeat as Executive of the Year, that might be the most important decision he makes this month.
