Mark Hatley could be forgiven if he suddenly disappeared. Instead, he gets to Halas Hall early and stays late. If he were busy digging an escape route, Bears fans would understand.
As the man in charge of finding talent for the Bears, Hatley is lucky he is a workaholic. Not that he’s finding much at Halas Hall. When Hatley isn’t there watching video, he’s on the road.
The Bears are about to go through their fourth straight year without a Pro Bowl player. It has been done before in the NFL, but not by the Bears. The New Orleans Saints went from 1970-78 without employing a player who earned the top recognition of peers and coaches. Since the Pro Bowl started in 1951, the Bears have been without representation after the 1974, 1994, 1995 and 1996 seasons.
“It’s saying something that Dave (Wannstedt) has won as many games as he has,” Hatley said of the coach who had something to do with acquiring many of the players he has.
“We have our work cut out for us.”
Making Hatley’s job harder are the Packers, Vikings, Buccaneers and Lions, the four NFC Central Division foes who appear headed for the NFC playoffs. They also appear so far ahead of the Bears that Hatley needs binoculars to make out their numbers.
Naturally, that’s not the way he sees it.
“I don’t see a real dominant team,” Hatley said.
He was speaking of the entire NFL. Unlike the heydays of the 49ers and Cowboys, Hatley sees no dynasties. Scouts used to write up the Cowboys of the early ’90s in a state of depression. Everywhere they looked, they saw talent, production, depth, speed, size. There was a time when Leon Lett was just another cog in the defensive tackle rotation.
“I think Green Bay and Minnesota will have trouble keeping all their players,” Hatley said. “I don’t see them getting better.”
Free agency is two-faced. For every team that gets lucky landing a helpful free agent, another team loses one. The salary cap makes stockpiling impossible, forcing teams to live by brains as well as signing bonuses. Does anybody fault the Packers for letting Desmond Howard go? Has his big contract turned around the Oakland Raiders? And former Packer kicker Chris Jacke can’t get a job anywhere.
Scheduled to become Packer free agents are Edgar Bennett, Dorsey Levens (they won’t sign both), Robert Brooks, Antonio Freeman (restricted), William Henderson (restricted), Eugene Robinson, Aaron Taylor, Gabe Wilkins and Brian Williams (restricted).
Scheduled to become Viking free agents are Jake Reed, Robert Smith, Todd Steussie, Dewayne Washington and John Randle (a transition player who probably won’t be free).
Hatley’s first reservoir for talent is the draft, of course, which means Bill Rees, the team’s new director of college scouting, is on the spot too. So it is helpful to review where Hatley and Rees came from.
The Kansas City Chiefs could be described as the most surprising team of this season because nobody figured them to be vying for AFC home field throughout the playoffs. They lost four of their last five games in 1996 to finish out of the playoffs. They had to retool.
They got rid of quarterback Steve Bono, lost offensive tackle John Alt, released defensive MVP safety Mark Collins and didn’t re-sign defensive end Neil Smith. They lost two other defensive linemen, Dan Saleaumua and Keith Traylor.
Most preseason experts picked the Chiefs for fourth in the AFC West behind Denver, Seattle and Oakland. Nobody thought their new players could rebound so quickly.
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But Hatley and Rees were part of a personnel team that had confidence in young defensive linemen John Browning and Vaughn Booker. They signed quarterback Elvis Grbac and drafted the No. 1 tight end, Tony Gonzalez. Hatley had found a mobile, experienced backup quarterback the previous year in Rich Gannon.
They signed Andre Rison to give Grbac what Bono never had–a proven receiver.
“I’d been trying to get Rison for five years,” Hatley said.
The Bears wanted no part of Rison when he was cut by the Jaguars last year and picked up by the Packers.
Tamarick Vanover was a third-round draft choice in 1995 who had played in the Canadian Football League and was recommended by Hatley. The kick returner-receiver is one of the team’s MVPs this year.
Hatley was in charge of scouting the secondary when the Chiefs drafted starting safeties Reggie Tongue and Jerome Woods in 1996.
The Chiefs even employ the punter with the second-best net average in the league and the best ratio of touchbacks to kicks inside the 20. He is Louie Aguiar, signed as a street free agent after the Jets let him go. This was after the Bills let him go as an undrafted rookie and he had played for the World League Barcelona Dragons.
So there is not only hope for the Bears; there is precedent.