Former Bears GM Phil Emery Ends NFL Career

The man who gave Jay Cutler a seven-year contract extension with the Bears is out of the NFL.

Phil Emery has retired from a position as senior personnel executive with Atlanta. Emery, who is 64 years old, came to the Bears after the firing or Jerry Angelo following the end of the 2011 season.

Besides giving Cutler a seven-year, $126.7 million extension at the beginning of 2014, Emery was best known for a few hits in the draft and plenty of horrible misses.

His first draft was an example of what was to follow. He drafted Shea McClellin at No. 19 overall and the pass rusher from Chicken Dinner Road in Idaho played 66 NFL games for the Bears and Patriots without doing much beyond breaking Aaron Rodgers' collarbone one year. 

Then Emery followed that with the selection of Alshon Jeffery, who had a solid career but left as after being franchise-tagged. He returned to haunt the Bears and score against them in the double-doink playoff loss after the 2018 season. Two of the other four picks that year were Brandon Hardin and Greg McCoy and neither played an NFL game. They took tight end/fullback Evan Rodriguez, who was arrested twice in before the 2013 season and made four NFL catches for 21 yards.

Emery drafted Kyle Long and Kyle Fuller in the first round the next two years, but also selected Khaseem Greene, Ego Ferguson, Will Sutton and Brock Vereen. One of his real steals was seventh-round tackle Charles Leno Jr., who was a seventh-round pick in 2014 and is still starting for Washington.

Cutler was gone by the end of 2016 and Emery by the end of 2014, but not before the Bears GM had fired coach Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season in 2012. To be fair to Emery, the Bears had started out 7-1 that year and limped in at 3-6 to miss the playoffs. But it was obvious he wanted his own coach in and the hire he made will never remind anyone of Mike Ditka. It was Marc Trestman.

When Emery was fired along with Trestman after 2014, he actually came to the press conference announcing the change.  And Emery delivered an address before ending it with, "It's time to change and move forward." Then he said. "Go Bears."

Emery had been an assistant college coach from 1981-98 and became a Bears scout under the late Mark Hatley, who was vice-president of player personnel but never had the title of GM. Emery was with the Bears through the 2004 season then, Smith's first year as coach, and had worked with them through coaches Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron before going on to be director of scouting for Atlanta from 2004-08 and then for Kansas City from 2009-2011.

Ryan Pace replaced him as Bears GM in 2015 and now Pace is also with the Falcons team Emery is now leaving.