We are less than a week away from the start of the Chicago Bears 2022 NFL regular season. There have been plenty of positives and also some road bumps along the way. However, in less than a week, we will get a real sense of what this Chicago Bears team can truly do.
Changes are brewing this year when it comes to the Chicago Bears and it all started when George McCaskey and Ted Phillips decided to part ways with Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy at the end of the 2021 season. One could say that it was a year too late, but early returns from their replacements could point to the timing being just right. McCaskey and Phillips looked to consultants to help them hire the right general manager. Hopefully, Ryan Poles turns out to be that guy.
With Ted Phillips retiring, who will take over his role as Chicago Bears President/CEO?
This offseason we all pushed for clarification on how the process would be handled. We pushed to find out how much control Ryan Poles had once he was hired. The responses were not great, but one caveat was that Ted Phillips would not be involved with football operations. Despite most of us wanting to see a true football mind take on a new role as President of Football Operations, while George McCaskey also wiped his hands clean, removing Phillips was at least a consolation prize.
Towards the beginning of the year, Jeff Hughes of DaBearsBlog hinted that Ted Phillips would be retiring soon. No one knew exactly when that was at the time, but Dan Pompei of The Athletic broke the story that Ted Phillips would be retiring at the end of the 2022 season. I think I can speak for most Bears fans when I say, hallelujah.
Nothing against Phillips from a personal standpoint. He sounds like a decent guy. However, nice guys usually finish last — or so they say. If we look back at the last 23 years of Phillips’ tenure, there has not been much success. The best pairing under Phillips’ watch was Jerry Angelo as general manager and Lovie Smith as head coach. The team saw a Super Bowl appearance in 2006 and five NFC North titles during that span. That’s just not good enough.
I’m not looking to bash Phillips here, that would be too easy. Instead, let’s look at some options the Chicago Bears might consider to replace him.