The Emery (and Trestman) era is over for the Chicago Bears. So, I thought it would be fun (well, not really fun, but informative) to look back at the Phil Emery era and the moves he made, starting with the draft, then going over other major personnel moves. I'll also take a look at all of the other Chicago teams and what's been going on with them.
So let's start with a quick look at what makes a GM a good GM. In simple terms, it's putting the best personnel out on the field. Putting together the best possible team on paper, and then matching them up with the best possible coaches. So, to start, we're going to be looking at the draft.
Starting with his first draft, 2012. Keep in mind that he had not been on the job long once the draft came, so while I'm sure he knew the players fairly well, mixing and matching them with the Bears and the team needs may not have been done yet. That being said, I'll go over each pick and give it a pass/fail grade followed by some explanation.
Round 1
Shea McClellin - Fail
I was actually close to giving this a pass since he's actually still on the team, but ultimately he hasn't been very good and he was a first round Matthew Brown pick, maybe if he was a 4th round pick it would be a pass. He started looking good at linebacker as this past season went on, but he still can't cover, which is important. I still think he could be good as a 3-4 OLB, but it doesn't look like the Bears are going to that.
Round 2
Alshon Jeffery - Pass
This is a huge pass here. Jeffery is looking like an absolute stud for another 8-10 years and will probably go down as the best receiver in Bears history if he stays with the Bears.
Round 3
Brandon Hardin - Fail
As much of a pass as Jeffery was, Hardin is that much of a fail. He simply could not stay healthy, and when he was healthy he wasn't productive. I wonder if he would have been better served as a third down linebacker, or something of that sort, but either way he was a complete Naperville failure as a Bear.
Round 4
Evan Rodriguez - Fail
The talent was there for Rodriguez. He did a great job as a lead blocker for Forte when brought in to do that, but his issue was his behavior, and eventually the Bears had enough and cut him.
Round 6
Isaiah Frey - Pass
I know, I know, he's not with the team anymore. However, he was a 6th round pick (as far as grading a GM, it's fair to give some slack on late round picks), and he did provide some decent value as a nickel back for the Bears for a season, so barely a pass.
Round 7
Greg McCoy - Fail
It's hard to get a fail out of me for a 7th round pick. That player pretty much has to either not play for the Bears at all (not because of getting traded), or has to actually hurt the team on the field. McCoy never saw the field for the Bears.
So, in 2012 he had one solid pass, one very slight pass (where I might be a little to nice). Rodriguez could have been a pass if he had behaved himself, but he didn't, and therefore isn't a pass. Now for 2013, no excuses with this one for having a below average class. Let's see how things shook out:
Round 1
Kyle Long - Pass
This is a massive pass. So far Kyle Long has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons. He didn't give up a single sack in 2014, and has been nothing short of excellent for the Bears so far.
Round 2
Jon Bostic - Pass
He passes by a slim margin, kind of an incomplete pass. As with many of these picks, seeing as he only has 2 years under his belt, it's not always possible to make an accurate judgement. However, I feel like he'll be a good outside linebacker for the Bears if they keep him there in a 4-3. I think he can be a solid linebacker in a 3-4 as well. Still, to truly earn the pass he'll have to continue to show improvement.
Round 4
Khaseem Greene - Fail
Greene looked good early on in his first preseason, but since then hasn't really looked very good at all. I guess I can be somewhat nice since he was a 4th round pick, but he's provided nothing more than a body on the field when Briggs gets injured.
Round 5
Jordan Mills - Pass
Mills did an excellent job his rookie year at right tackle, especially considering he was a 5th round pick just stepping in after JWebb Nation got cut. He got hurt at the end of the year and missed training camp and the preseason in 2014, which showed on the field, but there's still plenty of chances for him to get back to where he was in 2013. I still feel like he's better suited to be a guard and that they should flip him and Long.
Round 6
Cornelius Washington - Fail
I really want to see Washington work for the Bears, he's too much of a physical freak to fail, but alas, it looks like he's pretty much done already, which is a shame. He's provided nothing more than being an occasional body on the field.
Round 7
Marquess Wilson - Pass
Like Bostic, this is a bit incomplete, but when Wilson has been on the field he hasn't looked bad. There were a few drops, but there were also some pretty good catches he's made as well, knowing a big hit was coming, that's a receiver every team wants. If he can stay healthy he can be a very good piece, which is especially nice for a 7th round pick.
So 2013 was a much better draft. In fact, I might be a little too hard on Khaseem Greene there, which would make it a very good draft when you consider that most teams see less than half of their draft picks see any sort of success. Depending on what you think about Greene the Bears were either 5/6 or 4/6 in that draft, either way it was pretty good. So how was 2014?
Round 1
Kyle Fuller - Pass
Despite his midseason lull (which was likely aided by injuries), Fuller looks like he'll be the real deal. I don't know if he'll be a Pro Bowl type of guy, but I see him being a very good corner as his career goes on.
Round 2
Ego Ferguson - Pass
Ferguson didn't get a ton of time his rookie year, but did get some quality time on the field. When he was out there he made things happen, in a good way, so as he gets older he should become a very solid DT.
Round 3
Will Sutton - Pass
There should be an asterisk there, as Sutton has been solid, but there's a lot to still see on him. He didn't make a ton of things happen, but he also did a good job jamming up the middle so that other teams couldn't do as much. This is more of an incomplete, but I really don't want to cop out like that.
Round 4
Ka'Deem Carey - Pass
This was another tough, mostly incomplete one (as will be most of the 2014 class at this point), but Carey averaged about four and a half yards per carry and caught 5 balls in 6 targets. He just averaged fewer than 3 carries per game.
Brock Vereen - Fail
Some of this isn't due to Vereen's play, as I can easily see him being a good backup safety in the league for a long time, but it's that Emery waited this long to address the team's biggest need, reminding everyone of Angelo's failure to address the offensive line for such a long time. The Bears needed a starting safety and instead got a backup.
Round 6
David Fales - Incomplete
Okay, I can only take the not copping out so far. We don't know what the Bears have in Fales because his only time in the preseason was with the third unit, understandably. He didn't get a single snap in the regular season, so we need to wait on him and see what turns up with him.
Pat O'Donnell - Fail
O'Donnell wasn't a terrible punter by any means, he wasn't especially good either. He had several ooh type of punts during the season, but also had several very bad ones. He's a rookie, bottom line. However, just the fact that the pick was used on a punter that would have likely been available as a UFA is why this pick fails.
Round 7
Charles Leno - Incomplete
I guess this one is more on me. The good news is that I didn't notice him during any of his 6 games. However, I really didn't notice him at all, so I really don't have any idea as to how good he really was.
So, over 3 years of drafting Emery was about 10/18, and then there were 2 incompletes. While there are backup running backs and plenty of guys that still have some to prove in there with the passes, there are also Pro Bowl guys in Long and Jeffery. I'm not going to worry about who was picked after or anything on that, I'm just focusing on the players that were taken. To be honest, while he wasn't especially great, Emery didn't draft too horribly.
There were plenty of good things he did. Right away he traded away 2 3rd round picks to grab Brandon Marshall. Marshall was great his first 2 years with the Bears, and wasn't great in 2014, but was also slowed by injuries throughout the season. He also was the GM when the team finally gave up on J'Marcus Webb and cut him. He made the wise decision to cut ties with Julius Peppers at the right time and brought Jared Allen in as well, which at the time everyone with a brain agreed was the right move (but it didn't work out).
There were also a lot of bad moves though. While I agree it was time to move on to a new coach, Marc Trestman was a bad hire, especially when we look back and see that he had people suggesting to him the guys that were hired that have been quite successful since that hiring. It turns out that Rod Marinelli would have been willing to stay had they picked Arians. However, that whole situation was badly messed up by Emery. The Urlacher divorce from the Bears was another messed up situation. In fairness, 50% of that falls on Urlacher, because he did not handle that with grace, but Emery took a pretty hard line, which didn't help the situation. While I do think that front offices can't get attached to old players, there is a measure of respect that needs to be there, and it looks like that wasn't there with Emery. The Jay Cutler contract is the most glaring example of something that was messed up with the Bears. I don't need to go too far into that, but at first I didn't think it was terrible since there wasn't money guaranteed after the third year, but Cutler was just so much worse than the contract that it really has become a terrible contract. The Bears, under Emery, have gone from 10-6 to 8-8 to 5-11. While Emery put teams that looked good on paper on the field, they underperformed, and he failed to make the moves after Trestman's first season to fix the defense.
Now, where do the Bears go from here? I'm not going to go into names, but ownership MUST hire someone who is a football person to be the GM of this team. They need to let that person hire their own coach, and just get out of the way, that goes for Ted Phillips too. Hopefully the coach that is hired is one that commands respect and can help the offensive players to cut down on the stupid penalties as well as keep Cutler on edge. There's a huge mess at the top of the Bears and it's going to need to be fixed.
Now, on to more positive things. The Blackhawks have been very good this season, and now have 5 all-stars that have been voted in to the ASG. Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, and Crawford. That is based on fan voting, and while fan voting has it's issues, the bottom line is that the All-Star Game, in any sport, really is who the fans want to see, not necessarily the best players, and it's obvious that the fans want to see those five guys. The Blackhawks sit at the 3rd seed right now in a tough western conference.
It's safe to say that the Bulls are finally starting to gel now. The Bulls have won 12 of their last 14 games. Their biggest problems right now are staying healthy (McDermott, Dunleavy both hurt now) and playing down to lesser competition. I don't see how a team that has been able to beat top teams on the road is having so much trouble against teams near the bottom of the league. Also, as of late their shooting has been absolutely horrible. Slumps do happen though and they will likely break out of that. They've been finding ways to win despite the slump.
The Cubs and White Sox fronts have been quiet since the very active Winter Meetings. Many projections have both teams looking very good and some even have one or the other getting a wild card spot. It would really be great for the city to see either baseball team make the postseason.
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