Monday, May 14, 2001

Bears search for personnel boss

The Bears are currently scanning the NFL for top candidates to replace recently departed Mark Hatley, the club’s vice president of player personnel. Contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum gives his take on the job itself and who he’s heard are the top names being mentioned for it.

Buchsbaum: (Former Eagles director of football operations) Tom Modrak went to New York today to interview with the Joe Bailey group about the job. The general feeling around the league is that a lot of people are very skeptical of that job because the Bears are going to be running into big salary-cap problems soon because a lot of the top younger players on the team like (C) Olin Kreutz are up for contracts. They also have a lot more problems than people realize because guys like (DTs) Ted Washington, Keith Traylor and Mike Wells are literally on their last legs, their cornerbacks are average, not exceptional, and the biggest hang up of all is (QB) Cade McNown and his contract. The general feeling is that this guy is not only a bust but also a cancer in the locker room. Basically, because of the way his contract is set up, it’s almost impossible to cut him without taking a huge salary-cap hit.

Right now, it appears as if the front runners or, according to most people I spoke to in the league, the best candidates for the available general manager and football operations job are Modrak, Jerry Angelo of the Bucs, Phil Savage of the Ravens and Rich Snead of the Titans. The word on the street is the Ravens will fight very hard to keep Savage, but Savage also apparently will want a good deal for his scouts. The Titans will probably fight to keep Snead, especially after losing Glenn Cumbee to the tragic heart attack.

The Archives
2000 - 2001 Season