Thread: A Poll: Emery or Licht?

I just posted an articles by David Haugh and Dan Pompei which I believe give pretty clear indications of which way the Bears will go. Haugh points out that a complete change in the front office culture probably will not take place and therefore Emery represents the safe, solid, unexciting type of hire that's typical of the Bears. Licht is the guy you hire when you want an upheaval and he doubts Ted Phillips wants that.

The second indication comes from Pompei's article where he tells of the second interviews taking place. Not coincidentally Emery will be the second to be interviewed. In my experience that consideration usually goes to the top candidate on your list.

These are the two major reasons I think it will be Emery.

Mike Ditka

Originally Posted by soulman

I just posted an articles by David Haugh and Dan Pompei which I believe give pretty clear indications of which way the Bears will go. Haugh points out that a complete change in the front office culture probably will not take place and therefore Emery represents the safe, solid, unexciting type of hire that's typical of the Bears. Licht is the guy you hire when you want an upheaval and he doubts Ted Phillips wants that.

The second indication comes from Pompei's article where he tells of the second interviews taking place. Not coincidentally Emery will be the second to be interviewed. In my experience that consideration usually goes to the top candidate on your list.

These are the two major reasons I think it will be Emery.

I read both articles and I am not OK with "keeping the status quo" at Hallas Hall. That hasn't gotten us anywhere but to a SB. Once. Without the trophy.

It's time for a change and I would rather take a risk on a young cat, Licht, who could bring a new philosophy to an old organization. He could shit the bed. But I would be more apt to say, "hey, at least they gave it a shot" as opposed to bringing in somebody with a similar philosophy to one we already have, of which has earned us no rings.

I would rather have taken the risk and failed as opposed to not taken the risk and failed. So basically I just repeated what I stated in the last paragraph, but with less words.

I went w/Licht but I hope they fool us and go with Ross or the SD fella.

After reading McClure's article about Ross being disappointed in not getting a second interview... I found it a bit odd that the initial meeting for each candidate was with the Phillips (team prez), Stein (contract negotiator), and Hagel (communication director). Seems like these talks would be more along the lines with number crunching and image/public relations rather than talking draft tactics and how they would rebuild a team. I would take it the only real 'football talk' started when the candidates sat down with Lovie.

As far as my vote... I'd go with Licht with the hopes of a new thoughts & team philosophy since Emery seems too status quo.

The assumption that emery will just go with the flow because he was with the bears many years ago is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. If you believe that bs than you haven't been paying attention at all.

Bears' GM search reveals intentions for role

January, 26, 2012 Jan 26
4:00
PM ET

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By Kevin Seifert


The Chicago Bears are expected to complete their second round of general manager interviews Friday, barely beating the scheduled melting of your local glacier. Unless something veers off the Bears' steady but obviously unhurried course, a new general manager could be in place by the weekend.

It's been nearly three full weeks since the Bears fired Jerry Angelo. Team officials interviewed five candidates last week, one per day, and are bringing two of them back at the end of this week for additional talks. New England Patriots executive Jason Licht is at Halas Hall on Thursday, according to the team, and Kansas City Chiefs executive Phil Emery will have his second round of interviews on Friday.

Numerous media outlets have suggested Emery is the favorite, largely because he once served as a Bears scout and is a workaholic talent evaluator who isn't likely to rock a leadership structure that team president Ted Phillips wants to preserve. Licht's lack of previous ties to the organization make his future plans less certain.

As for the Bears' methodical approach, in all seriousness, I don't think it will prove a big long-term issue. It's true that the Bears' next general manager has missed a chance to hit the ground running at the Senior Bowl this week, but it's not as if he was needed to conduct a coaching search or begin the process of overhauling the roster.

The Bears will do neither in 2012, and the pace of this process is a strong indication of the place the new general manager will have in the Bears' organization. This is clearly not a job that, when unfilled, leaves the organization unable to function. If the Bears intended this job to be the second-most powerful role in the franchise, just below that of Phillips, I imagine they would have moved with greater urgency.

The best way to describe the Bears' next general manager, be it Emery or Licht, is that he will be the team's top talent evaluator and will share in decisions with coach Lovie Smith and others. He will not be an all-powerful guru or a franchise-wide authority figure, at least not any time soon.

Originally Posted by draw2anderson35

After reading McClure's article about Ross being disappointed in not getting a second interview... I found it a bit odd that the initial meeting for each candidate was with the Phillips (team prez), Stein (contract negotiator), and Hagel (communication director). Seems like these talks would be more along the lines with number crunching and image/public relations rather than talking draft tactics and how they would rebuild a team. I would take it the only real 'football talk' started when the candidates sat down with Lovie.

As far as my vote... I'd go with Licht with the hopes of a new thoughts & team philosophy since Emery seems too status quo.

I think we all believe it's little strange but it's also so like the Bears. As I said in another post for the last 25 years or so this organization has been led by the McCaskey family who seem to prefer and administration heavy and profit oriented culture in the front office. Winning team don't do that. They have a culture that emphasizes building winning teams. The Bears haven't had that kind of culture since the days of Jim Finks and Jerry Vainisi in and prior to the football era.

At least the old man realized what it took to build and remain a winning organization but unfortunately that talent was never passed on to his grandchildren and the son who was being groomed as his successor preceded him in death. Like I said, this is just the Bears being the Bears.

This thread asks who will be the Bears next GM, not who would you like it to be. While it's encouraging to see that the majority favor Licht the Bears being the Bears are far more likely to pick Emery so that's what I voted even though for once I'd like to see them do something unconventional and very Un-Bearlike.