Bears' new GM aims to deliver championship
Comments (...)LAKE FOREST – On paper, Phil Emery is the Bears’ top football decision-maker.
In person, Emery prefers to define his role in softer terms.
“I’m a teammate,” Emery said.
With that, the Bears introduced their fifth general manager in franchise history Monday at Halas Hall. Emery, 53, moved into his second-floor office after spending most of the past eight years as a college scouting director in Atlanta and Kansas City.
The Bears signed Emery to a five-year contract to replace Jerry Angelo, who was fired Jan. 3 after 11 seasons with the team. Emery served as an area scout for the Bears from 1998-2004 and boasts 31 years of football experience, including 14 years in the NFL.
If those years taught him anything, Emery said, it was to value a wide range of thoughts and opinions. Consensus and continuity mattered, he said, which must have come as a relief to the veteran Bears’ coaches and scouts whom he praised.
“Yes, I'm in a leadership role,” Emery said. “But I'm here to provide support, help, guidance and talent toward winning championships. I'm going to do all within every fiber of my body to develop within that role and to sync with [head coach Lovie] Smith and to help bring those championships.”
As Emery spoke, Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips listened from a few feet away. Phillips picked Emery from a pool of five short-list candidates, and Bears chairman George McCaskey signed off on the hire after Emery’s second interview.
Phillips said Emery’s attention to detail set him apart from other candidates. One such candidate was Tim Ruskell, whose two-year run as the Bears' player personnel director ended Monday when he and the team mutually agreed to part ways.
“They all stated kind of a general vision of how to make the Bears a championship team,” Phillips said. “But [Emery] had an added depth of understanding of what it would take on every level. That’s what really stood out.”
PATRIOT BLUEPRINT
Early in his nearly 60-minute news conference, Emery made it clear that he would not divulge specific details about his vision for building a championship team.
What was his plan for unsigned Pro Bowl running back Matt Forte?
How about his take on the team’s wide receiver corps and quarterback depth?
No one asked him his favorite color, but he might not have answered anyway.
“I will tell you this, and not to disappoint anybody,” Emery said. “When it comes time to publicly assess our needs or publicly talk about players that we may target, we will not do that. OK? Because I feel that's a competitive disadvantage to do so.
“We will know internally what our needs are. We will know internally the players we are going to target. We will not give away our competitive advantage to outline who those individuals are or at what position they are.”
The tight-lipped tactic comes from the New England Patriots, who have produced more championships than sound bites in the past decade. Emery’s past two general managers, Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta and Scott Pioli in Kansas City, each worked in the Patriots’ front office before they were promoted to their current positions.
Emery cited both men as significant influences while discussing his philosophy.
“What I bring in will be an accumulation of the systems that I’ve learned,” Emery said. “A lot of it will be from that system, … the ‘Patriot system.’
“But I will tell you this: Thomas has gone off on some different vents than the Patriot blueprint; so has Scott. You have to adapt it to fit your situation, the talents of the people that you have."
ALWAYS A SCOUT
Emery’s effect on the Bears is uncertain, but his passion is not up for debate.
As a scout, Emery said, he typically was home for only three to seven days a month during the fall. He spent most of his time traveling from college campus to college campus, jotting down notes during games and speaking with coaches and scouts.
In his new role, Emery still plans to log many miles traveling the country.
“I want to get my eyes on players,” Emery said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
A typical week will include working at Halas Hall from Monday through Wednesday before hitting the road. He will scout a game on Thursday and another game on Saturday, preferably in a location that is not too far from the Bears’ next game.
It’s that type of work ethic that impressed Phillips during the interview process. He scoffed at criticism that Emery was a safe hire because he was a familiar face.
“The familiarity really had no bearing at all,” Phillips said. “He was an area scout, so you really only saw him at draft time for a couple of weeks, so I didn’t really have a relationship with him.
“But what you do find out, and you did sense even back then, [was that] he had convictions in his evaluations even back then. So you saw a little start of what might be traits in a general manager."
Now, Emery is one of the most important men at Halas Hall.
Deep down inside, he’s a scout in a necktie searching for the next great player.
“We want to raise our own,” Emery said. “We want people to have passion for the Bears, that came into our home and were raised and developed in our home.
"[We want people] that have the passion not only for the Bears, but for this city and our fans.”
Comments
Total Comments 0 View/Add Comments |
There have been no comments made about this story. |
