NFL Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears Still Misguided With GM Search

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Ted Phillips

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The Chicago Bears have intensified their GM search, and all signs right now are pointing to Chris Ballard, the Director of Player Personnel of the Kansas City Chiefs, as the front-runner to land the job. Ballard, who has a history with the Bears franchise, is spoken of very highly in football circles, and most feel he would be an excellent choice to lead the franchise.

Phil Emery was also applauded as an outstanding hire, though, so tread lightly.

However, despite this search, the Bears are still not filling in all the holes that their hierarchy currently has. Ted Phillips is the team president and CEO; he speaks for the McCaskeys, and he will be making the major determination as to who is hired as GM. The issue is that Phillips is a businessman with zero football background and is in no means qualified to make a decision such as hiring who should be running the Bears’ football operations.

The Bears have tried to cover this by bringing in Ernie Accorsi, a well-respected retired front office executive who had successful runs as GM of the (then-Baltimore) Indianapolis Colts and the New York Giants, as a consultant for the GM and head coach search.

Bringing in Accorsi is the right idea for the franchise, but shows the giant void in the front office. The McCaskeys need to hire a President of Football Operations. There is a desperate vacancy in the front office where the GM, once hired, becomes the highest-ranking football operations officer on the team.

GMs have far too much on their plate running the day-to-day operations of the franchise to handle all aspects of the football operations, and the Bears cannot afford to have football operation decisions made by non-football minds.

The McCaskeys and Phillips have had far too many years running the organization and being involved in football decisions on a regular basis due to the current organizational structure. The Bears need to understand that they are an executive short of a full deck. If Chicago could hire a President of Football Operations who has front office experience and a football background, they could stabilize a scrambling organization.

The GM of this football team needs to be able to answer to someone who actually can evaluate whether or not their decisions are wise ones. The GM has no accountability because Phillips and McCaskey cannot genuinely critique and judge the job the GM is doing, and can only make decisions based on wins and losses.

Ballard may turn out to be an excellent hire, or he may end up being another Emery, who had a similar position with the Chiefs before the Bears hired him. Regardless, the Bears’ front office is setting itself up to repeat history by not stabilizing the football operations aspect of the organization.

Bill Zimmerman is a Chicago Bears writer for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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