The Chicago Bears have released a preliminary list of candidates to replace former general manager Jerry Angelo. All four have been granted permission to interview with the team, but a statement on the Bears' website made clear that additional candidates have not been ruled out and that current director of player personnel Tim Ruskell remains in play.

The four outsiders are:
Phil Emery, the Kansas City Chiefs' director of college scouting
Jason Licht, the New England Patriots' director of pro personnel
Jimmy Raye, the San Diego Chargers director of player personnel
Marc Ross, the New York Giants' director of college scouting

I don't want to pass much judgment on this list because I don't totally know what the Bears are up to. It's unusual for a team to announce its full slate of candidates for such an important job. Is this a new era of transparency? Or could there be a stealth candidate they're distracting us from? Call me a conspiracy theorist, but lots of crazy stuff happens this time of year. Could it be an attempt to demonstrate due diligence before ultimately hiring Ruskell?

There have been rumblings that Ruskell has a better-than-even chance to get the job. Let's just say that the Bears haven't stacked the deck with this pool. None of the four has experience as a general manager.

The most intriguing candidate might be Ross, who has been a rising star since the Philadelphia Eagles made him the league's youngest college scouting director in 2000, when he was 27. He is a Princeton graduate and has a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Stay tuned.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/52119/initital-candidates-for-bears-gm-job-emerge

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So Ross might be a Theo type? A young aggressive ivy leaguer.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Hub said yesterday that one of those people was not qualified to be intereviewed. He would not say which one.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Scorehead if we polled 100 random people in the loop and asked

Do you think Lovie Smith has done a good job?

What do you think the results would be?

Loop results:
Yes 25%
No 75%

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

@BobMcGinn
Bob McGinn:

#Bears on verge of hiring #Chiefs dir. of college scouting Phil Emery as GM. sources said just a matter now of dotting the i's

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Who was hired by Tim Ruskell in Atlanta. Fuck this team.

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Team Cutler.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

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Maybe not.

Zach is now saying the Bears are denying it.

Bears need to never hire a white GM again. Hasn't worked out well.

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There's still time. Don't worry, the Bears WILL find a way to screw this up. Tim Ruskell is still in the running...

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I guess Marc Ross is out of the running. It's not like he helped the Giants assemble the talent on the roster, that was all Jerry Reese.

Dir of College Scouting probably played no role in pointing out guys like Cruz from Umass or Bradshaw.

I heard it during an update last week (don't recall where) that Ross is considered to be not a hard worker. Then of course you hear how Emery is a grinder who never leaves the office.

Total bullshit.

I would bet my last dollar the Bears are eliminating any guy that wants to fire people under contract (scouts,computer guys,etc.) and bring in his own guys. It's always about "cutting corners".

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

So they are brining in Licht and Emery for a second interview. Well that clinches it is for Emery. Licht's resume doesn't stack-up compared to Emery (Bears like that kind of crap).

Emery is so desperate to be a GM that he will take any type of handcuffed control.

DeCosta and McKensie were the top candidates on the market. DeCosta probably saw the Bears as the best situation early on. However, I'm sure once he looked closer at the Bears and talked to people, he realized it was a hornet's nest of problems he didn't want to deal with.

McKensie wasn't even perused because a candidate of his value wouldn't take what the Bears were shoveling.

That's it right there.

Any candidate who had G.M. experience wouldn't have taken the job with these idiotic restrictions. "Whatever you say, Ted and Lovie".

Can't wait to hear the blowback on this hire.

Bears will sell it like this:

"Phil has been in the business for over 30 years. His on-the-ground experience is unrivaled. He has scouted and helped lead to the drafting of such players like; Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Matt Ryan, etc. This guy will arrive at the office at 5am and not leave until 10pm. We are so lucky to have the caliber of Phil Emery as our GM."

Text or tweet this to Zaidman and he can get it right up to Halas Hall. They couldn't have done a better job themselves.

Future Emery Press Conference:

Regarding Ruskell:
"I can't think of any other guy who I'd want by my side than Tim. I learned so much from him in my earlier days. I'm sure as we move forward together I'll learn even more from him and his vast experience."

Lovie:
"I'm such a big fan of Lovie Smith. His tenure with the Bears is unsurpassed. People want wholesale changes, but the foundation of this team is great. We just need to give Lovie the tools to take us to the next level. So that's on me to get Lovie the players he needs."

What's so sad is that this will be nearly exactly what will be sad.

I believe that the fan backlash over Tim Ruskell possibly getting the Bears GM job had an effect on the Bears & they may have decided to hire an outsider because of this. Having said that, take a look at the Chiefs roster...would you hire the Chiefs personnel guy? It looks like the Bears might because Emery worked for the Bears & wont challenge anyone. He'll be a good soldier. Is here another team in the NFL that always hires guys who have no experience in the job that they are being hired for? The fish always stinks from the head. The McCaskeys are the problem.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Yeah because the Bears are notorious for listening to fans.

More likely is they really didn't want Ruskell as GM.

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