Ryan Pace lands with Falcons; Bears add Matt Feinstein to front office

Former Bears general manager Ryan Pace is joining the Atlanta Falcons as a senior personnel executive, the Falcons announced Thursday.

Pace joins general manager Terry Fontenot’s staff after seven years in charge of the Bears’ front office. Pace will work alongside former Bears general manager Phil Emery, who is a national scout for the Falcons.

Fontenot and Pace worked together for 13 years in New Orleans before Pace left to become the Bears’ GM. The Bears went 48-65 during Pace’s tenure with two playoff appearances. The team fired him and head coach Matt Nagy last month.

Meanwhile, new Bears general manager Ryan Poles hired Matt Feinstein as the team’s new director of football administration. Feinstein joins a staff that includes Poles as GM and Ian Cunningham as assistant general manager.

Feinstein briefly served as the NFL’s Director of Labor Operations since earning a promotion last month. Prior to that, he was a senior manager for the NFL’s Management Council (2018-22) and a manager for three years (2016-18). In his role, he constructed quantitative models of collectively bargained roster and salary rules, refined models for time-sensitive analyses and compiled results into summaries for the league as well as for teams and ownership.

A Michigan graduate, Feinstein has a degree in mechanical engineering and previously worked for a research firm in New York prior to his career with the NFL.