| 18 February 2010
With the firing of pro personnel director Bobby DePaul the Bears are targeting a replacement that has close ties to Jerry Angelo. Tim Ruskell who spent time working with Jerry Angelo during Angelo's tenure in Tampa Bay is being talked about as a potential replacement.
Ruskell most recently worked with the Seattle Seahawks in their front office and involved in equal parts of the NFL draft and free agency. Ruskell's resume mirrors that of DePaul's as he hit and miss in both the draft and free agency in recent years.
For further information on Ruskell's back ground I went to Bloguin.com's Seattle Seahawks lead analyst from the Seahawkaddicts blog to get his take on Ruskell and his potential hiring to run the pro personnel department down at Halas Hall.
Seahawkaddict's own Chris Sullivan had this to say about Tim Ruskell at his success and failures in Seattle.
- He values free agency and the draft at about equal levels. He has been extremely active in the free agency periods the last few years,
with about a 50% success rating. Most of his big splashes -- Patrick Kerney, Deon Grant, Houshmandzadeh -- were somewhat dramatic, but by the second year, somewhat unimpressive. - He is excellent at finding late round talent and value in the draft. A number of our Undrafted FA signings remain on the team and have contibuted, ditto 6th and 7th round picks. David Hawthorne, Jordan Babineaux, Justin Forsett, and Nick Reed were all impactful players last year. Babs came along before Ruskell, but he signed him to an extension and trusted in his value. He started all 16 games last year at FS.
- He has whiffed on almost every first round pick he controlled. We start with Chris Spencer, move to Kelly "Who?" Jennings, move to the trade for Deion Branch (the pick we traded turned into pro bowl safety Brandon Meriweather), Lawrence Jackson, and of course Aaron Curry, who should be great. Same with Lo-Jack, we think, but he was probably a reach at #26.
- The second round has been where Ruskell's money was made; Lofa Tatupu, Josh Wilson, Darryl Tapp, John Carlson, Max Unger - four starters in five years, and Tapp has been our most solid rotational guy (and has started off and on).
- The Bears desperately need linemen; Ruskell does not value them at all. He drafted two centers -- Chris Spencer in 2005 and Max Unger in 2009 -- in the first two rounds. He doesn't believe the tackle position is important. This is, in large part, the cause of the fall of the once-proud Seahawks. Good luck there.
- In the draft, Ruskell has a clear formula: ONLY big schools (think top-5 finish in a BCS division), ONLY high character guys (smoke pot? Get lost, Harvin), four year starter (almost every pick). It's harsh, but analyzing who may or may not get picked, regardless fo the round, almost went 100% by that book. We passed on massive talent dozens of times to fill that punch card.
- He loves to win, and he takes great pride and interest in his team. I truly believe that Ruskell is a good guy, but he is much better suited to player personnel than he is GM... dealing with the coaches was his absolute downfall.
This look into Ruskell's tenure with the Seahawks I think goes along way to lessen the sting of a lot of the reports about Ruskell coming from the Chicago media who have essentially raised every red flag in the book and haven't talked about much of the positive things Ruskell did while in Seattle.
While not an ideal candidate, Ruskell does have a strong background in the NFL and given that he will be working for Angelo and beneath him and won't be given much more power than the pro personnel department is reassuring.
Ruskell will be more intimately involved in the aspects of scouting potential free agents rather than scouting for the draft. His focus will be advanced scouting for free agency and scouting the opposition for game planning during the season.
He won't have the dual responsibilities of having to deal with the NFL Draft, it will be one intent and one focus as his job.
I must state though that this is currently just a rumor that has surfaced regarding the job opening. Nothing has officially been set in motion and the Bears haven't hired Ruskell.
It's a solid lead that points in the right direction given Ruskell's past dealings with Jerry Angelo, so that is the best lead we can go off of for now.
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