With the announcement today that Phil Emery is the new Chicago Bears General Manager - even though it's essentially in name only since he can't fire Lovie Smith for a year - the Bears have attempted to fool the masses into thinking that hiring Emery is/was the move they needed to make in order to "win championships". Unfortunately, in typical Bears fashion, they've managed to fool nobody.
If the Bears were really attempting to convince people they were building towards multiple championships, they would have not just simply fired Jerry Angelo, but also would have served notice that whoever they hired as the next GM would have complete and total autonomy to clean house if he so desired.
The next GM, wouldn't have any timetables, restrictions, or stipulations in place prior to taking the job. The next GM would have a plan in place, and be able to immediately bring in the supporting staff he desires to implement the plan, which is precisely what the Oakland Raiders did.
The Bears on the other hand, hired a guy that would have to mesh with Lovie Smith, meaning that Lovie is essentially choosing who his new boss will be, which is the very definition of "Conflict Of Interest". The Bears also managed to make themselves into a laughing stock around the league with the way they sought out Jerry Angelo's replacement. Most importantly, the Bears managed to make a very simple process into a needlessly complicated one, and leaves us with a feeling that they didn't get the best possible candidate.
As far as Phil Emery himself, who the hell knows? His former boss Scott Pioli had nice things to say about him today, but then again Scott Pioli isn't really in a position to be critical of anyone on his former staff in Kansas City with recent allegations that Pioli runs the Chiefs like it's an Orwellian atmosphere. All we really do know about Emery is that he was a scout for the Bears in 2004, and before that he was a Strength and Conditioning coach. Does that mean Rusty Jones could be an NFL GM someday? Wait don't answer that.
For me the bottom line is real simple. As much as I lament that the Bears have completely screwed up yet another opportunity to conduct themselves as a progressive NFL Organization, I won't get too worked up about it....yet. My reason for tempering my displeasure is pretty simple: I want to see what Emery does in the draft this season.
Everyone knows the Bears are at least $20 million under the salary cap. Everybody knows that Bears intend on spending a lot of that money on free agency, specifically targeting a big play wide receiver. That's all fine and good, but if the Bears intend on winning multiple championships as they say they are, the key will be what happens in the drafts ahead.
If it's one thing I've learned over all the years of watching football, is that talent outweighs X's and O's. I'm not saying that coaching doesn't matter, because it absolutely matters, but Bill Belichick, or Bill Walsh, or any of the other "geniuses" would not have flourished as coaches if they didn't have great drafts over the years.
If Emery really does have the excellent college scouting background he supposedly possesses, then he should be able to find the necessary players that will be the cornerstones of the team in the years to come. Today's press conference certainly eliminated any chance Phil has a future as a talk-show host, but I really couldn't care less that he's not a good public speaker.
We know that Lovie Smith - despite my own personal misgivings about him - is a good football coach when he is supplied with guys who can play.
If Emery can find that talent in the draft, then the Bears will be fine. If not, the Bears will have to start this whole thing over again which would really be a crime since Jay Cutler is not getting any younger.
Let's hope Phil knows what he's doing.
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