Season after season, Chicago Bears fans expressed discontent with the drafting strategy of Jerry Angelo. He seemed to have a proclivity for finding talent in the late rounds of drafts, but seemed to come up short more often than not on the more critical picks in the early rounds.
Former Chicago Bears GM Jerry Angelo has been blogging
Jerry Angelo was the Chicago Bears general manager for 11 seasons, and ultimately dismissed after years of failing to keep pace with division and conference rivals. In recent weeks, he’s been blogging. Let’s see what he has to say...
Jonathan Daniel
Ultimately, Angelo was dismissed from the team, for reasons primarily associated with his failure to develop the Bears roster into a consistent contender. What’s he been up to in his year away from football?
A month ago, he was interviewing for the Jets general manager vacancy, but that position was eventually filled by John Idzik.
Since then, Angelo has taken to blogging. He’s written a few pieces for The Sideline View -- focused on how to draft, of course.
First up was The Importance of Football Character:
“Drafting is the easiest and most efficient way to build a team, as NFL general managers are acquiring talented players who are fast, healthy and entering into the prime of their careers. Drafting talent is easy. Drafting talent with character and a good medical report is the ultimate challenge for any personnel evaluator.”
“I’ve found that the most intoxicating and overrated trait that teams use to justify their draft picks is speed and/or athletic ability since speed & raw talent are the real separators between the average and above players in the league. There are much better ways to evaluate a football player than on just speed or athleticism.”
Angelo goes on to define what football character means to him, and examples of NFL players that he’s drafted in the past.
His most recent article is Four Elements of a Draft Grade, where he gets a bit more into the numbers.
1- Athletic Ability and Game Tape
2- Football Character
3- Citizenship
4- Durability
In each one of these elements, Angelo would assign a grade, just like in school: A, B, C, D, F. He says that there may be times that the grading system can be overlooked, but not until the 4th round or later. The first three rounds were graded strictly by those guidelines.
With so many years of failed drafts while in charge of the Chicago Bears, it’s pretty interesting that Angelo has taken to blogging about how to draft while looking for work. You can form your own opinions of his grading system, but suffice it to say it didn’t work out in Chicago.
Also, make sure to read the comments section of each article linked above. There are some Bears fans who decided to make an appearance and let him know their opinions.
Note: I contacted Angelo’s rep last week in hopes of securing an interview. He politely declined that opportunity.
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