The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears are NFC North rivals, so when a player, coach, or front-office executive leaves one team to join another, it catches attention.

According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday when the Vikings added a former Bears executive to the team.

“The Vikings are hiring former Bears GM Ryan Pace as a football advisor and Azzaam Kapadia, a former Seahawks executive, as assistant director of pro scouting. Nolan Teasley continuing to add to his staff,” Seifert posted on X.

Pace was the Bears GM from 2015 to 2021. He was fired in January 2022 after a 6-11 season and joined the Atlanta Falcons. There he served as the team’s senior personnel executive (2022) before moving to director of player personnel (2023) and ultimately vice president of football operations and player personnel (2024–2025).

The news of Pace’s hiring was met with criticism and mockery as fans were quick to point out his failures during his time in Chicago.

“How many of his awful draft picks and FA signings are still in the league so he can go get them, like he did for the Falcons?” one fan asked.

“Every time you can hire a washed up Bears executive you should absolutely do it,” another fan remarked.

“LMAO. Pace sucked as GM. He will suck harder as advisor. This organization has no future,” a third fan scoffed.

“This is phenomenal news for the NFC North cause it’s terrible for the Vikings lol,” one user noted.

“Ryan Pace isn’t exactly someone you want advising ur GM when it comes to football,” another user replied.

“Pace as a football advisor is HILARIOUS 😂,” quipped another fan.

“The same guy who traded up for Trubisky and Fields?” another user sneered.