Thread: Five Key Issues Facing Emery Now...................

Just based on Emery reputation as a great evaluator of college talent I'm expecting our drafts will improve. We had a very good draft through the first three rounds last year. Carimi, Paea, and Conte have all shown starters abilities. We have 5 picks in the first 4 rounds this year and we need at least two more impact players out of this group now. The "now" is the main reason I hesitate to spend a first round pick on a WR who will take two to three years to mature instead of a pass rushing DE or OLT who can step in and start or be part of the rotation in 2012. We can't be wasting first round picks on non-starters right now.

Repairing the offense includes signing a FA WR who can contribute at a high level now. It's time to get Jay Cutler that taller, wide body receiver he's been wanting since he arrived. This is the first of Jerry Angelo's many wrongs that needs to be righted. But I don't agree that a TE is such a huge need. We have four currently on the roster. Davis has shown signs of being at least as good a pass catcher as Olsen was and a far better blocker. Kyle Adams caught some attention last year but got injured. Spaeth is no pass catcher but blocked well and the guy I'd really like to see get a shot, Andre Smith, spent almost all of the last year on the PS. If there's an interesting guy in FA or later in the draft who has a shot at making the team I'm not opposed to picking one up but I disagree that it's a major need this year.

The rest shouldn't be brain surgery. The reason Emery is here is because Angelo and Lovie were not great evaluators of talent. Lovie needs to just step aside and let Emery do his thing. We either sign Forte, franchise him or trade him for a first round pick. This squabble with him has gone on long enough. And Briggs I would trade if we could get a first for him but unfortunately that won't happen. He's under a contract that was heavily front loaded so he has nothing to bitch about. The best I do is offer him a modest one year extension and raise his 2012 salary a little but every dollar more we give him is a dollar less for us to use somewhere else.

Bears need Emery's inspired vision

Former Navy players know what a motivator new GM can be

David Haugh's In the Wake of the News 7:39 p.m. CST, January 29, 2012


To the delight of Navy football players, the blizzard of 1996 had blanketed their campus in Annapolis, Md., with 2 feet of snow.

Everything shut down — except Phil Emery. In case Emery, then Navy's inexorable strength and conditioning coach, decided against canceling a regularly scheduled 5 a.m. workout, team captain Clint Bruce volunteered for an early "reconnaissance mission" to see if teammates were safe sleeping in.

They weren't.

"I peeked around the door and saw Phil standing there with his whistle on, so radioed back, 'Hurry, he's here! He's here!" Bruce recalled Sunday. "We were sure he wouldn't make it. But he probably slept there. Phil was the most convincing, inspiring and compelling man I've ever known."

If it sounds like a snow job covering the new Bears general manager with unwarranted praise, consider what Emery means to the former Navy linebacker. Bruce, who later became a Navy SEAL, lost his father as a high school senior. He went to college lost, angry and looking for direction. He found Emery, nicknamed "Satan," for his torturous conditioning regimen.

"One of the reasons I made it through SEAL training was I had five years with Coach Emery," said Bruce, 38, who runs a personal-security company in Dallas. "He took the good clay my dad left and molded me into the man I became. I respected my instructors. I was afraid of Phil. I didn't want to disappoint him."

Former Navy fullback Omar Nelson singled out Emery's integrity among the officers and coaches he encountered. Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper, then a graduate assistant, remembered how Emery took it personally if players flunked fitness tests. Bruce believes Emery's impact on future soldiers in Navy's football program extended far beyond college and any NFL player Emery ever scouted after leaving Annapolis.

"It'd be impossible to quantify Phil's impact on the (United States') war on terror because I know so many guys who feel the same way about him based on what he helped make out of us," Bruce said. "He took that unique athlete at Navy that had the will but not always the frame and created a team out of those different athletes. He trained us mentally, physically, athletically to be consistent."

Nobody can predict yet whether Emery's sterling character credentials will make him a good general manager — or a bad one. Tepid early reactions have more to do with the Bears' track record than Emery's.

Hiring a man similar in background and age to Jerry Angelo feels like change for the sake of change, an organization meeting the low expectations a skeptical football city has come to expect from Halas Hall.

Instead of interviewing even one outside GM candidate with experience, such as Ted Sundquist, team President Ted Phillips picked novices and forced them to accept head coach Lovie Smith. Phillips didn't attempt a front-office coup by targeting a smart, sitting general manager with local ties and soon-to-be expiring contract, such as Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland. He didn't go outside the box and tempt Bill Cowher by offering total control.

No, Phillips underwhelmed us by hiring an overachieving scout's scout, believing the best way to catch the Packers is to copy them. Green Bay made former scout Ted Thompson its GM on Jan. 14, 2005. A year later, Thompson fired inherited coach Mike Sherman — whose career .594 winning percentage exceeds Smith's .555. Last year, the Packers won it all.

There is a lot we don't know yet about Emery and his ability to draft players, sign free agents and handle coaches. What I have learned from former players and NFL colleagues about Emery's brand of leadership prevents me from being overly critical until we know more about the scope of his power. I can see what intrigues the Bears.

Expect Emery to set ambitious goals, Nelson promises from experience.

After Emery studied tape of the former fullback plodding through his junior season at 230 pounds, he strongly advised losing weight.

"Here was my strength coach watching enough tape to tell me he thought I'd hit holes better at 218," said Nelson, a pharmaceutical company representative living near Baltimore. "I bet him I still would be 218 in October. But I didn't want no dinner or trophy. We bet the sunglasses he always wore during summer workouts."

On Oct. 12, 1996, before Nelson set up a game-winning field goal against Air Force with a 50-yard run he couldn't have made carrying the extra pounds, he weighed in at 218.

"Phil hugged me and cried," Nelson said. "Tell him I still have his sunglasses."

Keep the shades. It's Emery's inspired vision the Bears need now.

dhaugh@tribune.com

Twitter @DavidHaugh


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Bears need Emery's inspired vision

Former Navy players know what a motivator new GM can be

David Haugh's In the Wake of the News 7:39 p.m. CST, January 29, 2012


To the delight of Navy football players, the blizzard of 1996 had blanketed their campus in Annapolis, Md., with 2 feet of snow.

Everything shut down — except Phil Emery. In case Emery, then Navy's inexorable strength and conditioning coach, decided against canceling a regularly scheduled 5 a.m. workout, team captain Clint Bruce volunteered for an early "reconnaissance mission" to see if teammates were safe sleeping in.

They weren't.

"I peeked around the door and saw Phil standing there with his whistle on, so radioed back, 'Hurry, he's here! He's here!" Bruce recalled Sunday. "We were sure he wouldn't make it. But he probably slept there. Phil was the most convincing, inspiring and compelling man I've ever known."

If it sounds like a snow job covering the new Bears general manager with unwarranted praise, consider what Emery means to the former Navy linebacker. Bruce, who later became a Navy SEAL, lost his father as a high school senior. He went to college lost, angry and looking for direction. He found Emery, nicknamed "Satan," for his torturous conditioning regimen.

"One of the reasons I made it through SEAL training was I had five years with Coach Emery," said Bruce, 38, who runs a personal-security company in Dallas. "He took the good clay my dad left and molded me into the man I became. I respected my instructors. I was afraid of Phil. I didn't want to disappoint him."

Former Navy fullback Omar Nelson singled out Emery's integrity among the officers and coaches he encountered. Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper, then a graduate assistant, remembered how Emery took it personally if players flunked fitness tests. Bruce believes Emery's impact on future soldiers in Navy's football program extended far beyond college and any NFL player Emery ever scouted after leaving Annapolis.

"It'd be impossible to quantify Phil's impact on the (United States') war on terror because I know so many guys who feel the same way about him based on what he helped make out of us," Bruce said. "He took that unique athlete at Navy that had the will but not always the frame and created a team out of those different athletes. He trained us mentally, physically, athletically to be consistent."

Nobody can predict yet whether Emery's sterling character credentials will make him a good general manager — or a bad one. Tepid early reactions have more to do with the Bears' track record than Emery's.

Hiring a man similar in background and age to Jerry Angelo feels like change for the sake of change, an organization meeting the low expectations a skeptical football city has come to expect from Halas Hall.

Instead of interviewing even one outside GM candidate with experience, such as Ted Sundquist, team President Ted Phillips picked novices and forced them to accept head coach Lovie Smith. Phillips didn't attempt a front-office coup by targeting a smart, sitting general manager with local ties and soon-to-be expiring contract, such as Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland. He didn't go outside the box and tempt Bill Cowher by offering total control.

No, Phillips underwhelmed us by hiring an overachieving scout's scout, believing the best way to catch the Packers is to copy them. Green Bay made former scout Ted Thompson its GM on Jan. 14, 2005. A year later, Thompson fired inherited coach Mike Sherman — whose career .594 winning percentage exceeds Smith's .555. Last year, the Packers won it all.

There is a lot we don't know yet about Emery and his ability to draft players, sign free agents and handle coaches. What I have learned from former players and NFL colleagues about Emery's brand of leadership prevents me from being overly critical until we know more about the scope of his power. I can see what intrigues the Bears.

Expect Emery to set ambitious goals, Nelson promises from experience.

After Emery studied tape of the former fullback plodding through his junior season at 230 pounds, he strongly advised losing weight.

"Here was my strength coach watching enough tape to tell me he thought I'd hit holes better at 218," said Nelson, a pharmaceutical company representative living near Baltimore. "I bet him I still would be 218 in October. But I didn't want no dinner or trophy. We bet the sunglasses he always wore during summer workouts."

On Oct. 12, 1996, before Nelson set up a game-winning field goal against Air Force with a 50-yard run he couldn't have made carrying the extra pounds, he weighed in at 218.

"Phil hugged me and cried," Nelson said. "Tell him I still have his sunglasses."

Keep the shades. It's Emery's inspired vision the Bears need now.

dhaugh@tribune.com

Twitter @DavidHaugh


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

First order of business for Emery? Define his role

How much power will new Bears GM really have?


Mike Mulligan 7:39 p.m. CST, January 29, 2012



Somewhere on his to-do list, between picking up the dry cleaning and packing extra wool socks, new Bears general manager Phil Emery can cross off one item right now. Forget about cleaning house. Maybe next spring for that one.

Emery will officially be introduced as Jerry Angelo's successor Monday after being hired for the job on Saturday. Nice of the Bears to give everyone some extra time to do their research on a man who spent half his NFL career working for the Bears but wouldn't be recognized at Soldier Field let alone inside a Wrigleyville Starbucks.

That will change, of course. Emery is no Theo Epstein, but he'll soon be as recognizable as the Cubs boss or Ken Williams of the White Sox or Gar Forman of the Bulls or Stan Bowman of the Blackhawks.

Well, certainly he'll be identified with the frequency of Forman and Bowman anyway, right?

The first order of business for Emery is to define his role. Is he really a general manager? Will he control the salary cap? Does financial guru Cliff Stein report to him? Does PR maven Scott Hagel? Remember, those guys sat in with Ted Phillips on the two interviews Emery had for the GM job — his only interviews ever for that role.

Is Emery his own man with his own power, or is he merely a buffer between de facto GM Phillips and the tall task of selecting talent? Who has final say on the 53-man roster? Who cuts the team? Can he hire or fire a coach?

Can he trade a player? Can he draft anyone he wants? Does he have control of free agency?

Let's say for the sake of argument, coach Lovie Smith believes he needs a cornerback in order to compete next year, but Emery sees a stud wide receiver in the first round that he wants. Who gets final say on which position is drafted?

Power within an organization tends to shift with success and, of course, the financial rewards that follow. Angelo controlled the coaching staff until Smith took over that power as part of the massive deal Phillips negotiated with the coach after a Super Bowl appearance. The organization changed when Smith cashed in to the tune of a multiyear deal averaging $5 million. Angelo got a bump that put him at about $1.1 million.

Angelo will be paid for two more seasons, but he walks away with just over half of the $5 million that has been reported. A source said he made around $1.3 million last season, his 11th with the team. It's difficult to imagine Emery getting anywhere near that kind of money. Not as a first-time general manager, who one source said cut his deal without an agent.

George McCaskey, a stickler for hierarchy, defined the Bears as follows: "Under our organizational structure, ownership selects the president and CEO, the president in consultation with ownership selects the general manager, the general manager in consultation with the president and ownership selects the head coach."

If that is the flow chart, Emery should have all the power he needs to get the Bears up and running in a hurry. But you have to wonder about that one. What resources will he have come free agency? Are the Bears going to go on a spending spree as Angelo hinted before being fired?

McCaskey said the free-agent issue is "not for me to decide That's a decision for the general manager to make in conjunction with the head coach."

General managers don't buy players. Owners do. GMs need the funds to get that done. The Bears need improvements at virtually all the big-money positions, including pass rusher, left tackle, wide receiver and cornerback.

There may be an age-driven apocalyptic future on defense, but the Bears need to get serious about helping quarterback Jay Cutler. Protection in the passing game and weapons to help the quarterback will help keep him here when his deal expires. How much is Cutler worth? That negotiation needs to begin this season.

Does Emery's arrival change anything for Matt Forte? How does Emery feel about negotiating extensions for guys already under contract such as Lance Briggs?

So much is unknown, but one thing is certain: Phil Emery will start to distinguish himself Monday.

Special contributor Mike Mulligan co-hosts "The Mully and Hanley Show" weekdays from 5 to 9 a.m. on WSCR-AM 670.


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

First order of business for Emery? Define his role

How much power will new Bears GM really have?


Mike Mulligan 7:39 p.m. CST, January 29, 2012



Somewhere on his to-do list, between picking up the dry cleaning and packing extra wool socks, new Bears general manager Phil Emery can cross off one item right now. Forget about cleaning house. Maybe next spring for that one.

Emery will officially be introduced as Jerry Angelo's successor Monday after being hired for the job on Saturday. Nice of the Bears to give everyone some extra time to do their research on a man who spent half his NFL career working for the Bears but wouldn't be recognized at Soldier Field let alone inside a Wrigleyville Starbucks.

That will change, of course. Emery is no Theo Epstein, but he'll soon be as recognizable as the Cubs boss or Ken Williams of the White Sox or Gar Forman of the Bulls or Stan Bowman of the Blackhawks.

Well, certainly he'll be identified with the frequency of Forman and Bowman anyway, right?

The first order of business for Emery is to define his role. Is he really a general manager? Will he control the salary cap? Does financial guru Cliff Stein report to him? Does PR maven Scott Hagel? Remember, those guys sat in with Ted Phillips on the two interviews Emery had for the GM job — his only interviews ever for that role.

Is Emery his own man with his own power, or is he merely a buffer between de facto GM Phillips and the tall task of selecting talent? Who has final say on the 53-man roster? Who cuts the team? Can he hire or fire a coach?

Can he trade a player? Can he draft anyone he wants? Does he have control of free agency?

Let's say for the sake of argument, coach Lovie Smith believes he needs a cornerback in order to compete next year, but Emery sees a stud wide receiver in the first round that he wants. Who gets final say on which position is drafted?

Power within an organization tends to shift with success and, of course, the financial rewards that follow. Angelo controlled the coaching staff until Smith took over that power as part of the massive deal Phillips negotiated with the coach after a Super Bowl appearance. The organization changed when Smith cashed in to the tune of a multiyear deal averaging $5 million. Angelo got a bump that put him at about $1.1 million.

Angelo will be paid for two more seasons, but he walks away with just over half of the $5 million that has been reported. A source said he made around $1.3 million last season, his 11th with the team. It's difficult to imagine Emery getting anywhere near that kind of money. Not as a first-time general manager, who one source said cut his deal without an agent.

George McCaskey, a stickler for hierarchy, defined the Bears as follows: "Under our organizational structure, ownership selects the president and CEO, the president in consultation with ownership selects the general manager, the general manager in consultation with the president and ownership selects the head coach."

If that is the flow chart, Emery should have all the power he needs to get the Bears up and running in a hurry. But you have to wonder about that one. What resources will he have come free agency? Are the Bears going to go on a spending spree as Angelo hinted before being fired?

McCaskey said the free-agent issue is "not for me to decide That's a decision for the general manager to make in conjunction with the head coach."

General managers don't buy players. Owners do. GMs need the funds to get that done. The Bears need improvements at virtually all the big-money positions, including pass rusher, left tackle, wide receiver and cornerback.

There may be an age-driven apocalyptic future on defense, but the Bears need to get serious about helping quarterback Jay Cutler. Protection in the passing game and weapons to help the quarterback will help keep him here when his deal expires. How much is Cutler worth? That negotiation needs to begin this season.

Does Emery's arrival change anything for Matt Forte? How does Emery feel about negotiating extensions for guys already under contract such as Lance Briggs?

So much is unknown, but one thing is certain: Phil Emery will start to distinguish himself Monday.

Special contributor Mike Mulligan co-hosts "The Mully and Hanley Show" weekdays from 5 to 9 a.m. on WSCR-AM 670.


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Mulligan poses some intriguing questions. Just how much power and freedom will Emery have this spring as far as rebuilding the problem spots. It would seem pretty foolish to hire a guy with his background in scouting and personnel and not give him the green light to get whatever talent is needed to compete, subject to cap limitations of course which should actually be quite generous.

As to the question of who gets the final say if he an Lovie have a different opinion regarding a specific player or positions to draft it had better be Emery. One thing that's never impressed me about Lovie is his abilties to evaluate talent. Not all of those lousy draft picks came from Angelo holding a gun on everyone else while he made the picks. The whole reason Emery is here is because the Lovie/Angelo connection struck out about as often as Adam Dunn.

Something that surprised me was Angelo's salary. I would have thought it was much higher too. Eating $2.5 mil isn't as bad as the rumored $5 mil and the Bears will probably save that much by getting rid of a few of Angelos less than satisfactory FA picks. Ya hear that Frank Omiyale? Your days as a Chicago Bear are done. It's also a good bet that Emery isn't getting more than about half what Angelo was making. Maybe he gets a bonus if we get to the Super Bowl.

Mully poses a very good question. Will Emery have the freedom to follow through with what Angelo intimated regarding spending in FA to improve. Was Angelo's comments about being aggressive in FA part of what got him canned? My guess would be yes. Given his poor judgement as far as spending way too much and getting so little in return and add that to his failure to add difference makers at key positions other than Peppers I'm not sure I would have let him have the team checkbook to shop free agents again this year. Hopefully that won't keep Phillips from denying it to Emery though. All of the holes which need filling can't be accomplished in just one draft.

I gotta say that I agree with Mulligan's view of where we need some new blood. Those are the primary needs and with 5 draft picks in the first 4 rounds an what's estimated to be around $30 mil in cap excess to spend if Emery can't fill some of those gaps now, and fill them with top notch talent, then we'll all have a right to bitch. If we'd have wanted status quo we could have kept Angelo and watched him swing and miss a few more times. I have some opinions on how best to fill those spots (no shit huh?) but I'm gonna trust that a guy who knows far more than I do about personnel to do it right.

The place to start is by getting Jay Cutler the tools he needs to become the QB we knew he was capable of when we traded for him. Get him the receiver(s) he needs quickly, in FA if at all possible, so he can begin working on getting rapport with him (them). There's no sense in going through a 12 game adjustment phase like he did with RWill last year. Get some competition for Webb. I don't care if it's a FA, a draft choice, or we give CWill another shot at it but we need better play from the LT position than we got from "Mr. Worst OT in the NFL" last year.

As the earlier articles have said, Emery has a ton of stuff on his plate so he needs to hit the streets running. I'll be interested in how he presents himself and what he has to say at his press conference later today. Oh, and in the Trib poll about whether fans felt it was a good hire, the no's lead by a small margin; 51% to 49%. We'll see who's right.

Originally Posted by soulman

First order of business for Emery? Define his role

How much power will new Bears GM really have?


Mike Mulligan 7:39 p.m. CST, January 29, 2012

Somewhere on his to-do list, between picking up the dry cleaning and packing extra wool socks, new Bears general manager Phil Emery can cross off one item right now. Forget about cleaning house. Maybe next spring for that one.

Emery will officially be introduced as Jerry Angelo's successor Monday after being hired for the job on Saturday. Nice of the Bears to give everyone some extra time to do their research on a man who spent half his NFL career working for the Bears but wouldn't be recognized at Soldier Field let alone inside a Wrigleyville Starbucks.

That will change, of course. Emery is no Theo Epstein, but he'll soon be as recognizable as the Cubs boss or Ken Williams of the White Sox or Gar Forman of the Bulls or Stan Bowman of the Blackhawks.

Well, certainly he'll be identified with the frequency of Forman and Bowman anyway, right?

The first order of business for Emery is to define his role. Is he really a general manager? Will he control the salary cap? Does financial guru Cliff Stein report to him? Does PR maven Scott Hagel? Remember, those guys sat in with Ted Phillips on the two interviews Emery had for the GM job — his only interviews ever for that role.

Is Emery his own man with his own power, or is he merely a buffer between de facto GM Phillips and the tall task of selecting talent? Who has final say on the 53-man roster? Who cuts the team? Can he hire or fire a coach?

Can he trade a player? Can he draft anyone he wants? Does he have control of free agency?

Let's say for the sake of argument, coach Lovie Smith believes he needs a cornerback in order to compete next year, but Emery sees a stud wide receiver in the first round that he wants. Who gets final say on which position is drafted?

Power within an organization tends to shift with success and, of course, the financial rewards that follow. Angelo controlled the coaching staff until Smith took over that power as part of the massive deal Phillips negotiated with the coach after a Super Bowl appearance. The organization changed when Smith cashed in to the tune of a multiyear deal averaging $5 million. Angelo got a bump that put him at about $1.1 million.

Angelo will be paid for two more seasons, but he walks away with just over half of the $5 million that has been reported. A source said he made around $1.3 million last season, his 11th with the team. It's difficult to imagine Emery getting anywhere near that kind of money. Not as a first-time general manager, who one source said cut his deal without an agent.

George McCaskey, a stickler for hierarchy, defined the Bears as follows: "Under our organizational structure, ownership selects the president and CEO, the president in consultation with ownership selects the general manager, the general manager in consultation with the president and ownership selects the head coach."

If that is the flow chart, Emery should have all the power he needs to get the Bears up and running in a hurry. But you have to wonder about that one. What resources will he have come free agency? Are the Bears going to go on a spending spree as Angelo hinted before being fired?

McCaskey said the free-agent issue is "not for me to decide That's a decision for the general manager to make in conjunction with the head coach."

General managers don't buy players. Owners do. GMs need the funds to get that done. The Bears need improvements at virtually all the big-money positions, including pass rusher, left tackle, wide receiver and cornerback.

There may be an age-driven apocalyptic future on defense, but the Bears need to get serious about helping quarterback Jay Cutler. Protection in the passing game and weapons to help the quarterback will help keep him here when his deal expires. How much is Cutler worth? That negotiation needs to begin this season.

Does Emery's arrival change anything for Matt Forte? How does Emery feel about negotiating extensions for guys already under contract such as Lance Briggs?

So much is unknown, but one thing is certain: Phil Emery will start to distinguish himself Monday.

Special contributor Mike Mulligan co-hosts "The Mully and Hanley Show" weekdays from 5 to 9 a.m. on WSCR-AM 670.


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

"Is Emery his own man with his own power, or is he merely a buffer between de facto GM Phillips and the tall task of selecting talent? Who has final say on the 53-man roster? Who cuts the team? Can he hire or fire a coach? Can he trade a player? Can he draft anyone he wants? Does he have control of free agency?"

Several fans thought J.A. had total control but I've argued differently, I expect no difference with Emery, Phillips will give the illusion Emery is in the drivers seat but the hierarchy will be the same. The fact is Phillips is actually acting as the McCaskeys G.M. and the G.M. role is actually more of glorified personnel guy and the draft, free agents etc is done via a discussion involving the G.M. head coach etc. with Phillips presiding over it and reporting to the McCaskeys. Lovie has as much input as the GM does because it's the GM's job to acquire the players to the best of his abilities that the head coach wants/needs but has to do so within the confines of the salary cap and of course how much Phillips says he can spend.

Remember the spending spree on Peppers, Manu, Taylor, Collins Phillips had to okay the amount there was even article out mentioning Phillips gives J.A. green light to spend in free agency, and in conjunction with Martz and Smith input the players where picked. Yes J.A. pulled the trigger on them but it was a collaborative effort not just the work of the GM alone, Manumaleuna and Collins was Martz's input, mistakes yes but not the GM's alone and I imagine the final demise of both Martz and J.A. as they where fingered by Phillips for the wasted money. Money is Phillips motivating factor in this IMO and why Lovie was kept as Phillips didn't want to buy out the remaining contracts of both.

"General managers don't buy players. Owners do. GMs need the funds to get that done."

That's probably the best way I've heard it worded as several seem to think that being a GM you are given an open checkbook from the McCaskeys/Phillips to do with as the GM likes but it's not that simple.

Maybe fans will open their eyes a bit and see Emery in a different light than they did J.A. Emery will still be a part of the draft and in charge of acquiring free agents etc. but keeping in mind the process at Halas hall hopefully some fans will realize it's not all one mans fault but the fault of the organization as a whole.

Let's all hope Emery can work within the confines at Halas Hall better than J.A. did.

Emery has to use the "new guy in prison" theory and shank some people. Ruskell was his first shanking. But he needs to let Lovie and everyone under him that he is calling the shots. Simple as that.

Hard to 'shank' some people in the structure the Bears have... Emery will still have to go through Phillips only to be approved or vetoed by George, Virginia & Co. in the end. Hopefully he is the MUCH needed new voice/opinions that the Bears front office needed.