Thanks, but no thanks. After some consideration, Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds has withdrawn his name from the Bears’ GM search (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero).
It’s not yet clear if Dodds is staying put or if he’s choosing to focus on other opportunities. The Raiders also have Dodds on their GM search list, alongside Bengals scout Trey Brown, Bears assistant director of player personnel Champ Kelly, and Patriots director of personnel Dave Ziegler.
Dodds in the running for GM jobs with the Lions and Panthers in the past cycle, so he has enough cache to be selective. A Colts exec since 2017, Dodds also impressed in his previous front office role with the Seahawks.
On the plus side, the Bears have already cast a wide net with roughly 15 candidates in the mix. As you’d expect, most of the names in this group are out-of-house candidates, though Kelly, a former Ryan Pace lieutenant, had the chance to interview last week.
With that ownership, I don’t blame him
I am getting sick of this comment. As far as resources, what does Bears ownership not do. They spend the cap, they built a first-rate practice facility, and they are working on building a new stadium. Do they have problems with hiring qualified people? In some instances, yes. Pace, did some decent things, but not enough. Nagy was coach of the year his first year. At that time, it looked like a great hire. So, not sure what a never been GM candidate would have a problem with as far as resources to do the job. If you are confident in your ability to do the job, I don’t see what the problem is. Now if they are dictating the coach hiring, or George/Teddy are demanding a certain player be added or drafted that would be a problem, but that has not been reported. Plus, by all reports they are pretty loyal and pay the going rate which cannot be said of all NFL teams. I think it would be an attractive job. First rate sports town, potential young franchise QB on a rookie deal for 4 more years, some decent young talent to build around, chance to establish a lasting legacy for yourself, yet staying in Indy as not the head guy, or going to Jacksonville is better?
Wait til you’ve seen another 55 years of the same crap like I have and then we’ll talk. Well, I’ll be dead, but I’ll come back and haunt you. It’s not what they spend, but how stupidly they do it year after year. And whatever decision they make, will probably be wrong.
McCaskey and Phillips are 0-6 in GM and coach hires since he took over and 3-19 against the Packers. He is absolutely clueless about the game. That sir, is something to be sick of.
Don’t change a thing Bears!
/s/ Packers fans
Assuming McCaskey and Phillips are 2 of the idiots who liked this post by ClassicFinder, We’ll have to hire Columbo to find the 3rd idiot.
Classic, you are right, the McCaskey’s have been trying to run a first rate team and they have not been cheap. The only thing they haven’t done is let a “Football Operations type-mind” run the team.
Back in the early ’70’s, Old Man Halas and his son(Virginia McCaskey’s brother) “Mugs” Halas, were smart enough to realize that the NFL passed them up. They hired Jim Finks to run the team. He modernized the team and drafted players that played until the mid 90’s.
When Finks resigned, smug little Mikey McCaskey took over and he thought he knew not only football, but business also and ran the team so far into the ground that we are still trying to dig out today.
The only mistake the McCaskeys made( Besides puting Michael McCaskey in charge), was they didn’t hire a President of Football Operations. Hire a football guy to run the team and the McCaskey’s only worry is where to put all the money that they will receive.
You mean the ownership group that is slow to fire and does not interfere?
I just read where Ryan Leaf is giving young football players career advice. Maybe the Bears could teach a class called” The Successful way to hire front office people”. O.J. Simpson told Antonio Brown he was overreacting, So it seems this is the time when Pigs Fly everyone talks about.
I’m a little surprised ,but supposedly the Bears were “really” impressed with Browns up and coming executive Glen Cook and Titans VP Monte Ossenfort in their interviews. That must have gotten back to Dodds, plus ex-Texans Rick Smith is going to be ( barring a bad interview) a finalist as well, George McCaskey is said to think very highly of him . I also expect Bills Asst Gm Joe Schoen to be a finalist as well and he supposedly really wants the Bears GM job.
The word is that Ed Dodds interview with the Bears went really badly . Ed Dodds , like his boss Chris Ballard , is very blunt and in your face and that can come off to some people as being a jerk and supposedly he did come off as one.
Agreed.
They also said that some of the GM interviewees were not impressed with some of the questions they were asked.
Typical McCaskey crap!
Dodds has previously indicated that he would be very selective about which GM job he would pursue. He knows that people usually don’t get multiple chances of being a NFL GM so he interviews the team as much as the team interviews him. If he doesn’t like some of the team’s answers, he moves on.
Without much cache, he can’t afford to be too selective. There comes a point in time that teams will not be placing that phone call.
Source for this?
About Dodds interview going badly? It came from both from the writer of the DaBears Blog, who has sources in Halas Hall ( Chicago Bears HQ) and as noted below , from a popular Chicago Bears podcast. Both indicated Ed Dodds was really blunt in the interview and also came off as a cocky. The “knock” on Ed Dodds has been that he’s not a people person and just might not have the right personality to be a GM .
On a popular Bears podcast, the best writer for the Colts said Dodds was indeed brash, and frankly questioned if his heart was really into becoming a GM, since he loves scouting so much, and GM would take him away from that. Another top candidate is also his co-worker, Morroco Brown.
My guess is that Dodds will end up staying in Indy, content with his current job. V
That would make some sense. Stay what you love doing and wrangle a few more bucks out of Irsay.
People act like Ballard is locked into that job. A few more years without finding a legit QB and he’s fired.
Personally, I’d be highly suspicious of someone who scored perfect in a job interview. They are probably just providing the answers they know you want to hear.