Chicago Bears front office can learn much from the Baltimore Ravens
By Todd Welter
Hire Ozzie Newsome or someone like him…
Ozzie Newsome built two Super Bowl-winning teams in Baltimore. The first one was built on one of the most dominant defenses of all time and a great run game. That team also happened to have Trent Dilfer as the starting quarterback.
When you can win a Super Bowl with Dilfer as your starting quarterback, you know you got a great general manager.
Newsome is the only reason that Modell did not go on to regret firing Bill Belichick. Ozzie was appointed to run the Ravens from the first time the franchise came to Baltimore.
He built their model for success through the draft and great scouting.
This is the man that drafted first-ballot Hall of Famers in Jonathan Odgen and Ray Lewis in the same draft. He also drafted Ed Reed, one of the best safeties to ever play the game.
24 first-rounders picked by Newsome went on to the Pro Bowl. He also drafted two franchise quarterbacks in Joe Flacco and Jackson. Flacco may not fit the conventional franchise quarterback, but you cannot argue with a Super Bowl MVP, one 4000 yard passing season (the Bears do not have one single quarterback ever to throw over 4000 yards), and 96-67 record as the Ravens’ starter for 11 seasons.
Newsome also created a front-office structure where collaboration is encouraged but it also works. We all know how much the Bears love collaboration–except when the Bears collaborate, it usually fails.
Newsome handed off general manager duties to Eric DeCosta back in 2019. Newsome just happened to groom DeCosta for the role. DeCosta was so loyal to Newsome that he turned down the chance to run the Bears in 2012.
Newsome still holds an executive vice president title with the Ravens. If and when the Bears decide to move on from general manager Ryan Pace, why not see if Newsome would come in as football operations president?
Bears chairman George McCaskey needs to see how much money and power it would take to get Newsome to come out of his semi-retirement.
If he does not want to do all the scouting, drafting, and free-agent signings, that is fine. You just want him in the building to get the proper talent evaluators and football people into Halas Hall to build a sustained, successful franchise.
The McCaskey family and Bears CEO Ted Phillips are admittedly, non-football people. They are notorious for not having the proper connections to identify the correct football head. They have had to use consulting firms or consultants such as Ernie Accorsi (and whatever is growing on his head) to hire guys like Pace and Phil Emery.
That is why making a call to Newsome is all the more important. If he says no, find someone similar to Newsome. The Bears need a veteran front office football head with deep connections to the talent evaluation world.
At a minimum, they need to bring in a former player or two like what Modell did with Newsome to be groomed into a football executive.
The Chicago Bears need to stop repeating the insanity of going with consultants to find another first-time general manager to make all the football decisions. All that has done is led to the Bears being owned by Aaron Rodgers and pretty much the rest of the league.