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Grading Phil Emery: Should the Chicago Bears retain their GM for another season?

Emery is known throughout NFL circles as an excellent talent evaluator, but should he get another season as the Bears GM?

By Dane Noble
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

One thing that most Chicago Bears (and Falcons and Chiefs)  fans will agree upon is that Phil Emery can put together a football team.  He arguably did more for the Chicago Bears roster in two seasons than his predecessor Jerry Angelo did in a decade. Okay, that may be a stretch, but he almost completely overhauled the offense in one offseason, and was able to build some depth on a defense that was miserably old and thin.

Has he filled all of the positions out? Of course not, but he's made considerable strides in his three seasons as general manager.

But what about the other side of things? When Emery was re-hired by the Bears in 2012, he was told that Lovie Smith would be the head coach for that season, but that Emery could go in a different direction starting in 2013 if he saw fit.  And of course, he did, and he felt after a lengthy and in-depth coaching search that Marc Trestman was his guy.

Their first season together was iffy-- the offense looked great, but the defense and special teams was historically bad, and 2013 closed out with an 8-8 record.

2014 was supposed to be the banner year for Chicago, but in less than half a season, the wheels started coming off

And here we are now, with the Bears failing miserably at every turn this season, and the laughing stock of the NFL. The coordinators are a hot mess, and there is an apparent chasm between Emery and Trestman over the benching of Jay Cutler.

It is assumed (and reported) that Trestman will be fired after the season is over, but that Emery's fate is still being determined by team president Ted Phillips and the the McCaskey family.

They held on to Emery's predecessor for a few seasons too long, and undoubtedly don't want to do the same again. But would now be too soon to make another change at GM? Does Emery deserve another shot at putting together a coaching staff for 2015?

What do you think?

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