The Chicago Bears are in a great position to succeed, and George McCaskey has put people in place to do that.
I sat around this morning trying to think about what to write about our beloved Chicago Bears. I knew the Ben Johnson press conference was today, so I figured I’d react to it. However, some of our other talented writers handled that duty (I mean, how great was that?).
As I listened to Ben Johnson, I realized something: It’s time for us, as Bears fans, to applaud George McCaskey.
Look, I can imagine what kind of visceral reaction you might have had when you read that and I understand. I wrote a column after the Bears’ end-of-year press conferences that ripped McCaskey to pieces. I crushed him on my podcast, and suddenly, two weeks later, I want to tip my cap to him.
Yes, yes I do.
It doesn’t change any of the previous criticisms I placed on George, he earned every single one of them, including the comments he made after the season that showed he still doesn’t understand basic items of importance as to how to properly run an NFL franchise.
Let’s start with these two items: first, George McCaskey is a good man. There are plenty of people who are running a billion-dollar corporation that are not, McCaksey is. Second, he wants to win. He isn’t trying to run this team for profit, he wants to win football games. The limitations that have been issued in the past about the team’s finances were not due to the McCaskeys being cheap, as many fans (and media) claim, they were related to cash flow as to how the family’s finances are structured.
But a couple of years ago, George McCaskey looked in the mirror and realized that he was not the guy who could be making all the critical decisions that needed to be made to make the Bears great. He wanted it to happen, he had wanted it to happen for years, but couldn’t get the team over the hump.
Enter Kevin Warren.
McCaskey knew he needed a man who was a seasoned executive who knew how the franchise needed to be run. He knew how to make this franchise run like a world-class operation. Warren knew one thing: if the Bears were going to be great, they needed to swing big and they needed to spend money to make it happen.
Today, we learned that Ryan Poles told him Ben Johnson was the guy and George told him, “Go get him.” McCaskey’s role in this franchise moving forward is pretty simple, yes, he’s the chairman, but he needs to allow Kevin Warren to make the global decisions for the franchise and he needs to sign off on him, and he needs to steer clear of football operations, let Poles and Ben Johnson handle their business and most importantly, George needs to keep the wallet open.
McCaskey opened the wallet for Ben Johnson. The Bears spent an unprecedented amount of money on a head coach. If you want the best, you need to pay for the best. Kevin Warren understood that and he has made sure George McCaskey did as well.
Over the last couple of years, George has stepped aside. Has he not meddled (for lack of a better word) at all? No, I think he’s still made his opinions known from time to time but overall, he’s stepped aside and put the people in place to make the right decisions for the club.
That doesn’t necessarily happen across the league. Look at some of these other teams that are also looking for new coaches. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson made roster decisions based on Madden ratings. Mark Davis fires coaches as often as he sneezes and sold 5% of the team to Tom Brady and asked him to save him, we will see if that works. The Dallas Cowboys let their coach’s contract expire and had no plan to replace him. The entire league knew the Jacksonville Jaguars needed to fire GM Trent Baalke and reset completely, but owner Shad Khan kept Baalke, the top candidates (Mike Vrabel, Aaron Glenn, and Ben Johnson) didn’t even consider the Jaguars because of it and took different jobs and after Liam Coen also pulled his name out of contention for the Jaguars job, Khan finally decided to part ways with Baalke almost three weeks too late.
Let’s not forget, that Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper forced his football operations to trade up for the first pick to take a QB (that he wanted) and gave the Bears a pile of assets and Caleb Williams because of it.
George McCaskey may not be the best owner in the league, but he’s far from the worst and if he’s truly learning from his mistakes, and if he now has the right people in place, if he gets out of the way, the Chicago Bears, for the first time in years (decades?) might finally be in a position to have sustained success.
So George, if you’re reading this, my cap is off to you, and sorry about saying there’s nothing but boobery at Halas Hall.