George McCaskey has quietly been transforming the Bears since he became Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Bears last summer. He started his job when the NFL was locked out, but made his biggest move days after the 2011 season ended.
The Bears fired general manager Jerry Angelo, then hired Phil Emery.
Emery made a huge splash during the first week of free agency, signing key players while also engineering the trade to bring Brandon Marshall to Chicago. McCaskey talked to the Chicago Tribune about why they pulled the trigger on Angelo:
"The way I see it is in those three key hires, you evaluate the entire body of work and see whether the entire body of work merits having that person back for another season. It's not one game or one play. Again, look at the Giants. They had confidence in their people, their coach, their plan, and it bore fruit."
It's telling that McCaskey used the words confidence and plan. The problem with Angelo is that his tactics always seemed rudderless. Players would be lauded and sign an extension one month, and then get cut the next. Performance like that did not inspire much confidence.
McCaskey has shown he is not afraid to let his staff do their jobs, and will hold them accountable when they don't do their jobs well. This philosophy completely explains the Angelo firing. It was Angelo's job to ensure the Bears had the staff to win, and he failed miserably in the 2011 season.
