NEWSLETTER
The Athletic’s annual NFL agent survey is always an interesting read.
And this year was no different:
While Ben Standig covers a bunch in getting the pulse of the league through conversations with various anonymous NFL agents, there wasn’t a ton of stuff with Bears ties. HOWEVER, there was one segment that made my ears perk.
When asking agents who the most powerful behind-the-scenes person in league circles, agents got creative with their answers. Specifically, the vote that went to NFL on FOX insider Jay Glazer. Football fans know Glazer has sway in league circles. But I don’t think we would’ve thought he had enough pull to help influence hiring decisions for the league’s most important jobs.
From the article (bold emphasis mine): “Mike McCarthy doesn’t get hired by the Cowboys without Jay Glazer. Ryan Pace doesn’t get hired by the Bears without Jay Glazer. There’s a ton like this. He’s got pull with a lot of people.”
Am I to believe that the Bears made a decision to hire Pace because of Glazer’s influence? I’m not sure I could make that leap even if I put on a tin-foil hat. Then again, Bears Chairman George McCaskey once said he asked rival owners for guidance in his decision-making. So I suppose anything is possible. And if Glazer is an apparent kingmaker, then how should I be interpreting and dissecting his analysis. At minimum, it gives new perspective to conversations Glazer had with Pace about drafting Mitchell Trubisky, the Bears’ pursuit of QB change in the 2021 offseason, and a glowingly favorable comparison of Trubisky and Matt Nagy to Drew Brees and Sean Payton.
And yet, reading the Bears don’t hire Pace without Glazer’s influence is what stuns me the most.
Knowing that the Bears’ hiring process for Ryan Poles was remarkably different (for better or worse) than the one that ultimately led to hiring Pace fills me with a sense of relief. It isn’t much, but it isn’t nothing. In the end, it doesn’t shock me that Glazer has an outsized influence in league circles. But imagining a news-breaker as a next-level power player in the NFL who can influence a legacy franchise like the Bears (or Cowboys) blows my mind.
