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Bears Personnel Staff Now One of the Strongest in the NFL........
Bears' personnel department changes make the staff stronger
Chicago makes a couple of front-office moves. Greg Gabriel
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Print This June 06, 2012, 09:25 AM EST
On Tuesday, Chicago Bears General Manager Phil Emery announced multiple promotions and additions to the player personnel department. The most notable of the changes were the promotions of Marty Barrett to Director of College Scouting and Chris Ballard to Director of Pro Scouting. Some cynics will say, "What’s the change, these guys have been with the Bears for years?” Well, being that I worked with both of these men for 9 years I can tell you.
Both are very qualified and well thought of around the league. I hired Ballard from Texas A&M Kingsville in June 2001. He was the defensive coordinator at Kingsville at the time and was starting his first NFL scouting job. To say that Ballard learned quickly is an understatement. He, along with then-scout Phil Emery, became my two best scouts. Ballard has the natural instincts needed in scouting. He recognizes talent and knows how to sell that player in meetings. He has a strong work ethic and a strong passion for the game. On top of that, he was very good at developing relationships with the college coaches in his area. Those relationships are important for a scout to get information that not every scout gets when making school calls. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Ballard would soon become a Director and I’m sure he will be on short lists for potential GM’s in the near future. He has that kind of talent.
Barrett is a person I have known for years. Like me, he is a native of Buffalo, New York, and was a star quarterback at the University of Buffalo. I scouted Marty when I was an area scout for National Scouting in 1984. He had a tryout with the Buffalo Bills and then got into coaching. His last stop was as the recruiting coordinator at Rutgers before he was hired by the New Orleans Saints as an area scout. Marty was with the Saints for a few years before joining the Bears as their west coast scout. When I came to Chicago in 2001 Marty was already an established scout and did an excellent job covering the west coast for us. I can honestly say that there weren’t too many players Marty was wrong on. His reports were very detailed and his character evaluations were spot on. Marty is one of the most organized scouts I know and he will bring that trait as well as strong leadership skills with him as the College Director.
What makes these promotions special to me is I have seen both grow as scouts over the last 11 years and there is not a doubt in my mind they will do an outstanding job for the Bears. They are very experienced, well trained and ready for this opportunity to run a department. Scouts seldom get much publicity, but I can say that the Bears staff is one of the strongest if not the strongest scouting staffs in the league. Guys like Jeff Shiver, Rex Hogan, Mark Sadowski, Ted Monago and Kevin Turks are very good at what they do. With Ballard and Barrett leading them, they will become even better.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. 
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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High Fives / Like - 3 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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So happy to see the Bears for the first time since I can remember really making sure their scouting/FO is up to par w/the elite teams in the league.
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I know we covered some of this ground last week but maybe it should be reinforced. If there was ever much doubt about Emery's intention of building the future of the Bears through the draft these moves should confirm that.
The new CBA makes drafting talent far more advantageous cap wise than over paying vets who may be marginal players or front line starters whose performance is falling off. If the Bears become consistent winners and remain among the top teams in the league we'll be drafting late in the first round where a 1st round pick will get a contract of around $7-$8 mil total for four years. Top vets in some positions are getting that much per year on average.
I think you'll see an emphasis on selecting players who can come in and contribute immediately in the early rounds. Players who require more time to develop their pro game will fall to later rounds or not be drafted at all. I think that overall teams will get somewhat younger as higher priced vet are replaced by rookies and second year men.
The new CBA was supposed to limit spending on unproven rookies in order to make more money available to pay the vets. I think this will help but it may also mean the end of an era of ridiculous contracts that can eat up 10% or more of a teams cap space on just one player. Either that or teams will end up with a number of high priced vets surrounded by a lot of younger players and the journeyman types will lose out.
It should be interesting to see how this all works out.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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I believe in a few short years, teams are going to be trying to do it the Bear way. We're going to be the next franchise every team models themsleves after.
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This is obviously a good omen. The train can still come off the tracks and all of us can be drinking the Emery kool-aid, but as for now I like the taste.
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Wonder if JA was trying to be cheap, or that was a function of ownership. If this draft is above average (and personally I think it is) then the next drafts are going to be very exciting!
Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win your still messed up.
Restore the roar!
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Originally Posted by
short faced bear 
Wonder if JA was trying to be cheap, or that was a function of ownership. If this draft is above average (and personally I think it is) then the next drafts are going to be very exciting!
I don't think JA was putting enough emphasis on drafting well and I don't think he listened to his scouts at times. Emery was one so he does. I think that was a big mistake on JA's part. Instead of getting out there and seeing these guys in person he depended a lot on game vids to get his knowledge. He just didn't have the background in college scouting to do it well and it showed. I think the Bears see the draft as the best way to build and since that was a one of JA's weaker points they decided to replace him with someone who could draft better.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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Originally Posted by
soulman
He just didn't have the background in college scouting to do it well and it showed. I think the Bears see the draft as the best way to build and since that was a one of JA's weaker points they decided to replace him with someone who could draft better.
I agree. You can't sustain a team through FA's now. You can burn through a ton of money on guys who often don't have much left in the tank. Even the stars who still have some great years left, cost a mint. It's fine to sprinkle a few through your team to plug holes & occasionally splurge on a guy like Peppers. But the draft is max bang-for-the-buck, and then you can have money to re-sign your own gifted players when the time comes.
Brian Urlacher
Thanks For The Memories
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I might be wrong, but I believe that Jerry viewed himself as a talent evaluator so I think he did want to make it work via the draft. I think he just wasn't as good an evaluator as he thought and especially lately did not want to put in the time to do the evaluations. I think the corner office was more comfortable than the airplane seat. And I also wholeheartedly agree that he did not listen to his scouts as much as he should have. He was a great talent evaluator himself -no reason to.
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Originally Posted by
JustAnotherBearsFan99 I agree. You can't sustain a team through FA's now. You can burn through a ton of money on guys who often don't have much left in the tank. Even the stars who still have some great years left, cost a mint. It's fine to sprinkle a few through your team to plug holes & occasionally splurge on a guy like Peppers. But the draft is max bang-for-the-buck, and then you can have money to re-sign your own gifted players when the time comes.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The cost of FA Olineman has skyrocketed. When we signed Tait away from KC is was for a less than $6 mil per year and most thought that was too much. They said we were paying LT money to a RT. LOL Today even a pro bowl level RT will cost you 50% more than that. For $6 mil you can get a good OG like Ben Grubbs but not a vet OT as good as Tait was.
Ruben Brown only cost us about $1 mil per year and we got two or three pretty good years out of him. Fred Miller was less than $5 mil per year. He was no all pro but he was better than anyone we've had there up until now. JA's ability to draft good lineman sucked so this was his only solution and it worked fairly well until the costs made it impractical. We've been "buying" our lineman for too long. It way past the time to develop our own.
If we're gonna spend big on a FA then that guy needs to be a playmaker. A guy who other teams respect and need to game plan for. The big bucks are for the Peps, the Cutlers, the Marshall's and the MWill's. One great QB or WR or DE/pass rusher can be a difference maker. On all pro OG by himself can't so it's crazy to go out and buy one guy like that and stick him in with a bunch of stiffs. It will hurt his play more than it will improve everyone else's. JMO
Last edited by soulman; 06-12-2012 at 12:17 AM.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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