Football ‘lifer’ the latest general manager candidate to talk with Bears
Comments (...)CHICAGO (MCT) — If the Bears hire Jimmy Raye as their next general manager, they will hire someone who has been immersed in football since the time he was wearing diapers.
Raye, who interviewed with Bears management Tuesday, has been around a college team that featured Earl Campbell and a pro team that featured Eric Dickerson. So it’s no wonder he had a hand in the Chargers drafting LaDainian Tomlinson, Michael Turner, Darren Sproles and Ryan Matthews.
The Chargers’ director of player personnel is the son of Jimmy Raye II, an NFL assistant coach for 34 years. The younger Raye was a ballboy for the Lions, Falcons and Rams.
“Growing up as a football guy, being around the game and having that kind of background, I think would lead to him having great vision for an organization,” said agent Bruce Tollner, who also is the son of a coach, Ted Tollner.
Raye played in the NFL as a wide receiver for two games in 1991 with the Rams, where the wide receivers coach was his father. He also went to camp with the Chargers and Oilers in subsequent years.
After his playing career ended, he tried his hand at coaching, but his father suggested personnel might be a better path. As a kid, Raye moved seven times to various points of the country as his father switched jobs.
“I thought the personnel end of it had more stability,” Raye II said.
Indeed, the younger Raye has worked with six head coaches for the Chargers.
Raye’s first non-playing NFL job was as a quality control coach for the Chiefs in 1995. While there, he formed a relationship with former Bears vice president of personnel Mark Hatley and Hatley started to get him involved in scouting.
The next year, Bobby Beathard hired Raye to be a scout with the Chargers. And so Hatley, who eventually would draft Brian Urlacher and Olin Kreutz, and Beathard, whom many consider a Hall of Fame general manager, became Raye’s primary influences as a talent evaluator.
People who know Raye will tell you evaluating is what he does best.
“He knows his personnel,” said one front-office man who has worked with him. “He’s just solid. The fact that he has lasted in San Diego all this time tells you something.”
The Chargers have retained Raye and promoted him under three general managers. The 43-year-old worked for John Butler and A.J. Smith after Beathard left.
“Jimmy is very bright,” his father said. “He has great leadership qualities. He can project, which is important in that area of the business.”
The players the Chargers have drafted during Raye’s time include quarterback Philip Rivers, wide receiver Vincent Jackson, tight end Antonio Gates and linebacker Shawne Merriman.
Under the Chargers’ current structure, Smith is the man who makes all the decisions, however.
If Raye gets his chance to make the decisions in Chicago, he can draw on a lifetime of experience.
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