Appearing on Comcast SportsNet’s “Bears Huddle” on Wednesday, Bears chairman George H. McCaskey addressed the team’s underwhelming first half, which sees the club sitting at 3-5, several games back of the Lions and Packers. According to McCarskey, he’s “very disappointed” about how the season has gone so far, but is hopeful that a turnaround is on the horizon, as Larry Mayer of ChicagoBears.com details.
“Bears fans and everybody in the building was expecting this team to contend for a Super Bowl and now we’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole,” McCaskey said. “But I think every team faces some adversity at some point in the season and the measure of the team is how they react to that adversity. So we’ll see what these guys are made of. We have every confidence in Phil and Marc and the players to pull us out of this.”
Although it’s not unusual for high-ranking team executives to express disappointment over poor results and optimism about the future, McCaskey’s comments are somewhat notable for their mention of GM Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman. As Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com observes (via Twitter), McCaskey’s vote of confidence for Emery and Trestman seems unsolicited and somewhat premature.
At this point, McCaskey’s comments should simply be taken at face value, since it’s unlikely that either Emery, who has been the team’s GM since January 2012, or Trestman, hired in 2013, are on any sort of hot seat just yet. But if the Bears continue to struggle in the second half, it may be a situation worth keeping an eye on as the 2015 season approaches. The team hasn’t earned a playoff berth since the 2010 campaign, and Emery’s massive investment in Jay Cutler is the kind of move that could eventually cost him his job if the Bears don’t become a legit contender with Cutler at the helm.