Thread: Free agency intrigues Brian Urlacher

I don't know what to say about Jerry Angelo. I mean, yeah, he flat out knew how to draft or bring in defensive studs and great special teams players. In that sense, he was very good, or at least he was at one time. But on the other hand, he was absolutely horrible in his offensive draft choices. Soul, you're probably going to want to shoot me for saying this, but I'm going to say it because it needs to be said: Angelo dropped the ball too many times on either drafting or signing offensive talented players - even Gabe Carimi and Chris Williams remain uncertainties in our future plans because of both circumstances and injuries taking hold in their careers. I think this is a make or break year for Chris Williams as far as his tenure with the Bears is concerned, but Carimi will have at least another year to adjust to the pressures of the league since he was injured most all of last season.

Did we have success during the Jerry Angelo era at the helm of the Bears? Yes. We won four division titles (2001, 2005, 2006, 2010), got to the NFC Championship Game twice, and won the NFC Championship and played in Super Bowl XLI. Now, that being said, we experienced more failures under Angelo than we did success. We had losing seasons in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2009, and failed to make the playoffs with a .500 or better record in 2008 and 2011. You're talking to a Yankees fan right here who expects his team to make the playoffs every year, so I consider anything less than a postseason appearance by my teams to be failed seasons. The Bears, therefore, were mediocre to just plain bad during most of Angelo's tenure. This team could have been a playoff team had Angelo been more proactive during the 2011 offseason, but he wasn't.

I will say this, though. I do think that finishing at .500 was for the best for the Bears as it gave us the opportunity to go out and get a better talent adjudicator as our GM (Emery). When Virginia McCaskey and Ted Phillips made the call for hiring Jerry Angelo back in '01, they were more concerned about pinching the almighty penny than they were about building a competitive football team. Angelo did spend money on free agents, but not on the right ones often times, and this usually set the Bears back cap-wise, or we wouldn't spend much, and we would be thin in talent and depth.

So, if you ask me if I think Jerry Angelo was a good GM, I'll leave you with this parting shot: he was 2/3 of one from a talent adjudicating perspective and a 100% backer in the McCaskey philosophy of saving a buck wherever he could. In other words, I think he was awful for the most part.