Mark Hatley walked into Bears coach Dave Wannstedt’s office this off-season and sat down to talk about a problem: A certain player simply wasn’t good enough. There needed to be a change.
The rub, though, was the player was popular with coaches and teammates, gave total effort and was a solid locker-room presence–the kind of guy to whom coaches get attached after several years.
The name of the player is . . . well, it really doesn’t matter. He is now a former Bear. More important, he is one of many from a team that began training camp with only 24 players on the roster who were Bears before Hatley took over as vice president of player personnel 15 months ago. There were many Hatley-Wannstedt conversations. There will be more.
Some of the Hatley talks were difficult for Wannstedt, who brought some of the subject players to Chicago.
“But anytime we can find a player that’s better than what we’re playing with, as tough as it is on me to make those changes, you have to do it,” Wannstedt acknowledges.
The housecleaning has been sweeping and continuous, not limited to players acquired by Wannstedt and former personnel director Rod Graves. Hatley signed defensive tackle Marc Spindler last Aug. 12; Spindler was cut Aug. 24. Defensive end Kurt Barber came and went in 10 days, cornerback Tony Stargell in three.
Defensive tackle Chris Maumalanga, whom Hatley signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, was brought in Nov. 5. He was gone in less than a month.
“I think this happens anytime somebody comes in and it’s a new system starting over,” says Hatley, who added three new scouts last month to replace ones remaining from the Graves regime. “It’s not my players, it’s not Dave’s players, it’s our players. And we’re going to try to put the best players we can on the field. We’re all trying to do the same thing.
“It’s not, `Let’s keep this guy because Mark Hatley brought him here.’ I’ve never been that way, and I never will. I don’t care if the player was here before I got here or how he got here. Whoever’s the best, we’ll line up and play with them. It’s the Chicago Bears.”
But while the brand name on the product remains “Chicago,” this edition carries the unmistakable signature of the craftsman who built it. Not since the first year of the Wannstedt era have the Bears undergone a makeover of such magnitude.
It is a makeover with a mission, though, more than a wholesale or random slash-and-burn.
Hatley’s program has unfolded in stages and figures to take at least two years of rebuilding before, ideally, entering a longer, fine-tuning era. His plan:
– Unload problems.
– Find depth first.
– Keep the core.
– Re-sign earlier.
– Win in the draft.
Hatley began with a basic conclusion.
“In my opinion, you needed more athletes who could make more plays,” he says. “Somebody has asked me, `Are you going to be able to control the ball better?’ Hey, we led the National Football League in ball control last year. How are you going to beat that?
“What we needed was some people who could get up the field and make a play after they catch a slant or make a run. I still think you have to be able to cover, rush the passer and run the ball, and have some players who can go down the field and make some plays.”
That meant jettisoning some non-performing assets such as the expensive, failed attempts at marquee free-agent signings–Bryan Cox, Tyrone Hughes–despite the salary-cap consequences. And Hatley resisted the impulse to gamble big on one-free agency roll.
Instead, the first goal was to avoid a repeat of the last two years, when injuries to starters exposed serious weaknesses further down the depth chart. Hatley has overhauled the bottom of the roster more than the top for a reason.
“I just think we didn’t have enough talent at the bottom,” Hatley explains. “It should be better now that we’re better at the bottom of our team. It’s unbelievable what that means. The two teams in the Super Bowl were deep. The reason they were there is because they were deep.”
Wannstedt, like every coach, has wanted a quality core of players signed and in place for years as his foundation. Curtis Conway, Andy Heck, Erik Kramer, Todd Perry and James Williams were in the first wave.
Hatley, working with Wannstedt and finance head Ted Phillips, went further. Priority re-signings this off-season were Kramer, Jim Flanigan and Barry Minter. Flanigan, 27, and Minter, 28, were kept with five-year contracts. Free-agent defensive tackle Mike Wells, 27, was signed for five years. They, as much as any rookie, are the future.
Hatley wants to add to that future in a way the Bears rarely have done. The Bears are expected to have nearly $1 million left under their 1998 salary cap after their rookie signings. The money could be spent on adding veterans.
But Hatley wants to look at early extensions to the contracts of certain players, not a Bears tradition. Safety Marty Carter, 28, and defensive end Mark Thomas, 29, are free agents after 1998. Hatley hopes to keep them from reaching the free-agency market with extensions before December, the month the Bears have done most of their relatively few extensions.
“I want to sign some guys on our football team for next year before they get to the market,” Hatley says. “That’s something we’ve talked about. Mark Thomas, other people we’ve got up–I want to have some money to do some things. We were strapped last year and couldn’t do anything; we didn’t have any money.
“Marty Carter has worked his (butt) off in the off-season and looks better now than anytime I’ve been here. He looks like he did back when we tried to get him to come to Kansas City.”
To some, Hatley was the centerpiece of the 1998 draft, and not only in Chicago. The Bears sat at No. 5 in the first round, and there were teams–Jacksonville, New England and others–who wanted Curtis Enis.
Offers were made. Good offers. But as the Bears’ 15 minutes on the clock ticked away, Hatley wasn’t hearing what he wanted. There was a sense other teams thought Hatley, directing his first draft, could be pushed a little.
He couldn’t. With a minute remaining in the Bears’ turn, Hatley put the phone down for the last time and took Enis. Had Raymont Harris accepted the one-year offer as a transition player, Enis likely would not have been the pick or the asking price for a trade might have been lower.
But Hatley took Enis and a draft class that the Bears hope will yield multiple starters sooner rather than later. And Hatley knows his clock has started ticking with this class.
“You hear things, that Dave’s on the spot,” Hatley says. “Hey, we’re all on the spot. That’s the way it ought to be. We have to produce.”
Bears personnel chief Mark Hatley has made a series of major moves, some expensive, in his first year on the job.
Oct. 28, 1997: Cuts Chris Zorich
Popular “Care Bear” released despite PR fallout.
April 18, 1998: No deal on draft day
Hatley doesn’t get his price so Curtis Enis is drafted.
June 2, 1998: Cut Bryan Cox
Marquee free agent was gone even if he had agreed to pay cut.
June 2, 1998: Staff housecleaning
Final 3 scouts hired in department makeover.
June 13, 1998: Cuts Alonzo Spellman
Patience exhausted, Hatley ends roster uncertainty.
Chicago Tribune
