Bears Narrow GM Field

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jan 24, 2012 4:20PM

The Bears have narrowed their search to two candidates in their hunt to replace fired general manager Jerry Angelo. Phil Emery and Jason Licht are the last two standing to take over the top personnel position for the Bears. Emery is currently the Kansas City Chiefs' director of college scouting, while Licht is director of pro scouting for the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots. Eliminated from consideration are three other candidates — current team director of player personnel Tim Ruskell, Jimmy Raye of the San Diego Chargers and Marc Ross from the New York Giants.

Both finalists have ties to the New England Patriots, a team that will play in their fifth Super Bowl in the past 11 years and a team that has won with well constructed rosters of complementary players, rather than relying on a few superstars. So it's no surprise that Bears management would look to candidates trained in that organization's inner workings. Emery also has previous experience with the Bears, serving as regional scout under Mark Hatley form 1998 to 2004.

Reports yesterday suggested that the Bears had made an offer to Emery, though that was not the case. Did those rumors tip off the direction the Bears are leaning? We'll know soon enough, although the Bears don't appear to make an imminent announcement.

One thing that won't be on their new GM's to-do list is hire a new offensive coordinator. Newly promoted offensive coordinator Mike Tice was eliminated from consideration for the Oakland Raiders head coaching gig, a day before he was supposed to interview with the team.