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Now this gets me excited (maybe, while never having a direct title, he was involved in the draft) Peggy Kusinski ‏@peggykusinski 2m2 minutes ago Per #Saints media new #Bears Pace responsible for unearthing guys like jermon bushrod, jahri evans, marques colston and pierre thomas.

Albert Breer ‏@AlbertBreer 10s10 seconds ago Rival exec on Bears' hire of GM Ryan Pace: "Excellent. Coaches love him. Good pro guy. Hard worker. Very conscientious." Larry Holder ‏@LarryHolder 5m5 minutes ago Loomis on Pace at '14 Senior Bowl: "I kind of feel like he's been our secret for a while, but look, he's a great, young personnel director"

For anyone doubting Ernie's involvement:

Doug Marone was the OC for the Saints before Kromer, during the first first 3 years of Payton's tenure. Just an FYI. Give it half an hour and the Chicago media will pick up on this and rumors of Marone will start. Also, funny thing...supposedly Bears had Bowles waiting while they were finalizing deal with Pace so Bowles had no idea. Basically the Bears walked him into the interview and said, apologies about the wait, we just hired our new GM Ryan Pace (introduced him to Pace) and than let Pace lead the interview. Hope Pace was ready!

Doug Marone was the OC for the Saints before Kromer, during the first first 3 years of Payton's tenure. Just an FYI. Give it half an hour and the Chicago media will pick up on this and rumors of Marone will start.

Some reaction:

Look at the Saints off-season last year. They, along with the Bears (and Broncos) were the winners of the off-season. How do those moves (similar to the Bears moves) look now? Look at the Saints cap situation (hint: Its awful). I see a lot of red flags. Sure, you interviewed amazing, but what is your track record, your skill-set, etc. Again, I'll trust Ernie but there are some things about Pace that I'm not a fan of. There are other things I like and clearly some strong football people in New Orleans thought the world of him (numerous promotions and a lot of credit and strong recommendations).

In theory, last year he almost essentially was the GM. Don't know if that is good or bad. Saints got a lot of off-season pub for their moves but on the field performance wasn't good. What worries me is his lack of scouting background. He really has been focused on pro scouting for the bulk of his career. I really don't like that. Prove me wrong Pace.

I am now seeing if this same person had any other tidbits. He either went out on a limb and got lucky or really has some good info.

Interesting. At least he comes from an organization that has won recently. I trust Ernie's involvement in this process. Sounds like he really knocked the Bears socks off. Hopefully he truly is the right man for the job. The quotes from the Saints people, including Sean Payton, all sound extremely encouraging.

Who do you propose? DeCosta isn't interested and McGloughan has his own issues. Yes he had a great background (but did have other issues) but that doesn't necessarily make him the right fit for this job. His best role is as an adviser and in reality he took a higher end adviser role as Bruce Allen is still going to be significantly involved in calling the shots in Washington.

Per Jason LaFoncora (NFL Network)

Per Ed Werder

WSCR reporting that Ballard is still in Chicago.

You would think with the Bears done interviewing 4 candidates, that some of the candidates would at least start getting informed that the Bears are going to head in a different direction (and at least than, those groups would start leaking info). I guess the question is, do the Bears think they need 2nd round interviews with certain candidates or did they get to spend enough time with them in 1 interview. How come the Chicago media can't figure out when Bowles is interviewing? I figure something gets leaked prior to his interview.

Word on the street is no one really wants the Jets job. Why, partly because of questionmarks as to how much control they would have, but also because it has turned into a revolving door position where you don't get the time necessary to put your stamp on an organization and prove whether you are worth it. It is why I said that no matter what happens with our next hire, we are pretty much going to have to give them the extreme benefit of the doubt, let them hire a 2nd coach, give them a 4-5 year initial run, etc. If we don't, we will turn into the Raiders / Browns and now Jets where we will relatively consistently only be able to attract substandard talents / guys who have been bridesmaids so much that they are finally desperate enough to take any job with the GM title....and once you get into that slope, it is tough to get out off (and much more dependent on luck...even though all moves are to some extent dependent on some luck).

One sidenote, a lot of people think of Ballard and Toub, but Ballard also has ties to Bevell (Seattle OC) from his Wisconsin days.

There are other rumblings that both candidates will be brought back for interviews today. I'm really amazed at how quiet the news has been from the interviews. Other than who we have brought in, the media hasn't been able to scoop anything.

Saw this on another board. This is from someone who "supposedly" has a close connection to someone within the Bears organization. Take it for what you will, but the individual indicates the Bears will announce they have hired Pace prior to interviewing Bowles.

When you think about Kyle, he was able to get the best years out of RG III (Washington) and Shaub (Houston). Obviously stuff in Cleveland didn't go quite as expected but he got out more out of Hoyer than I would have ever expected.

I like Kyle. Seems like a very bright guy. That is a good combination on the offensive / defensive side of the ball. I think after the Bears meet with Bowles, we'll see them focus closer on Quinn and Toub. I hear Bowle's weakness is that he isn't all that vocal. While that isn't a requisite, I think after the Trestman experience, the Bears are going to want to make sure they have someone who is a vocal leader (Note: This doesn't mean yelling on the sidelines, etc).

On a sidenote, google Pioli and the Chiefs and read about what went on their. While he is a bright guy, he was a worse GM than Emery and a horrific people person. The stories that came out of KC after he left were insane.

I think this was likely more of a favor to the Falcons organization than anything else. Interesting regarding Pace. I am okay with him, although I still love everything I've heard from Ballard. No denying that the Saints have had a lot of talent. All that said, they've had Drew Brees. I like what Ballard and the Chiefs have been able to do without an elite QB.

The above is from Peggy Kosinski or something from CBS (or something like that). Interesting if it is the case.

What the falcons have done would be the equivalent of firing Trestman and promoting Emery and than hiring a GM to work under Emery. Do you realize how pissed we would be had that happened? Now I'm not comparing Dmitri to Emery, he's clearly better, but in the eyes of most Falcon fans, Dmitri should have been ousted. Instead they promoted him and allowed him to bring in a new guy. That really doesn't solve anything. I'll take what the Bears did over what Arthur Blanke is doing.