ESPN NFL

The Chicago Bears are expected to complete their second round of general manager interviews Friday, barely beating the scheduled melting of your local glacier. Unless something veers off the Bears' steady but obviously unhurried course, a new general manager could be in place by the weekend.

It's been nearly three full weeks since the Bears fired Jerry Angelo. Team officials interviewed five candidates last week, one per day, and are bringing two of them back at the end of this week for additional talks. New England Patriots executive Jason Licht is at Halas Hall on Thursday, according to the team, and Kansas City Chiefs executive Phil Emery will have his second round of interviews on Friday.

Numerous media outlets have suggested Emery is the favorite, largely because he once served as a Bears scout and is a workaholic talent evaluator who isn't likely to rock a leadership structure that team president Ted Phillips wants to preserve. Licht's lack of previous ties to the organization make his future plans less certain.

As for the Bears' methodical approach, in all seriousness, I don't think it will prove a big long-term issue. It's true that the Bears' next general manager has missed a chance to hit the ground running at the Senior Bowl this week, but it's not as if he was needed to conduct a coaching search or begin the process of overhauling the roster.

The Bears will do neither in 2012, and the pace of this process is a strong indication of the place the new general manager will have in the Bears' organization. This is clearly not a job that, when unfilled, leaves the organization unable to function. If the Bears intended this job to be the second-most powerful role in the franchise, just below that of Phillips, I imagine they would have moved with greater urgency.

The best way to describe the Bears' next general manager, be it Emery or Licht, is that he will be the team's top talent evaluator and will share in decisions with coach Lovie Smith and others. He will not be an all-powerful guru or a franchise-wide authority figure, at least not any time soon.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

The Chicago Bears are moving forward with their general manager search and have received assurance they won't lose their just-promoted offensive coordinator. Such was the upshot of two developments for the franchise Monday night.

The finalists to replace general manager Jerry Angelo are Kansas City executive Phil Emery, a former Bears scout, and Jason Licht of the New England Patriots. Both will receive second interviews this week, after which the Bears will presumably make a decision. There have been reports that Emery -- a relatively quiet, hard-working meat-and-potatoes candidate -- is seen as the favorite in many NFL circles, but the team insisted that no decisions have been made.

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Mike Tice was dropped from consideration for the Oakland Raiders' head-coaching job. Tice had been scheduled to interview for the job Tuesday, but the Raiders have already moved to the second round of their interview process, according to Michael C. Wright of ESPNChicago.com.

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has told the Minnesota Vikings that the only stadium site with chances of getting approved in 2012 is the Metrodome site. The Star Tribune has more.
• The Vikings are "extremely frustrated" with that decision, according to a team spokesman via Doug Belden of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
• Vikings guard Steve Hutchinson wants to play in 2012, according to Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com.
• The Vikings' reconfigured coaching staff is getting a trial run at the Senior Bowl, reports Dan Wiederer of the Star Tribune.
• Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers has already spoken with the Oakland Raiders about their head-coaching job, reports Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• The departure of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin could send ripple effects through the Packers' coaching staff, writes Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
• Former Packers radio announcer Jim Irwin has died, notes Kareem Copeland of the Press-Gazette. He was 77.
• Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew wants to see the team reduce its penalty total but isn't concerned with personal fouls on their own, writes Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

We're Black and Blue All Over

So the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox -- er, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots -- will meet in Super Bowl XLVI. We here in the NFC North have a very East-Coast title game to look forward to. (Or not.) Don't worry. We have plenty to keep us busy here in the Midwest.

Tops on the list is the Chicago Bears' search for a general manager, which you would think could near its conclusion this week. The Bears interviewed five candidates for the job last week, including current director of player personnel Tim Ruskell, and probably would have either a second round of interviews this week or simply make a decision.

Stay tuned on that one. The other candidates include Marc Ross (Giants), Jason Licht (New England Patriots), Jimmy Raye III (San Diego Chargers) and Phil Emery (Kansas City Chiefs).

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and fiancé Kristin Cavillari announced they are expecting, according to People Magazine via ESPNChicago.com.
• Bears cornerback Charles Tillman is one of three finalists for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
• Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel grades the Green Bay Packers' season.
• Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette offers his grades.
• Pete Dougherty of the Press-Gazette recalls how the Packers nearly hired Joe Paterno as their coach in 1971.
• The Oakland Raiders have already interviewed Packers assistant head coach/linebackers Winston Moss and have asked permission to interview defensive coordinator Dom Capers as well, notes AFC West colleague Bill Williamson.
• Lions defensive backs coach Tim Walton interviewed for a job with the St. Louis Rams, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
• Lions place-kicker Jason Hanson figures he'll have to win his job in training camp again this summer, writes Carlos Monarrez of the Free Press.
• Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN.com wonders why the Vikings hired Fred Pagac as defensive coordinator last year.
• Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports from the Senior Bowl festivities in Mobile, Ala., where the Vikings are coaching the North team.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

With all but four NFL teams done for the 2011 season, we have a pretty good idea of what the 2012 draft order will look like. Something tells me you would be interested in where NFC North teams will be choosing in the first round, and so I refer you to ESPN.com's full draft order on our NFL Nation blog.

A few slots have yet to be decided by a coin flip, but the four NFC North teams are locked into their positions. The particulars:

3. Minnesota Vikings
19. Chicago Bears
23. Detroit Lions
28. Green Bay Packers

Let the mock drafts begin.

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Please keep two of our blog regulars in your thoughts as they battle serious illness. Best wishes to VWCAU and icLambeau.
• Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com summarizes the interest in Packers assistant coaches throughout the NFL. Offensive coordinator Joe Philbin is a candidate for the head-coaching jobs with the Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements will interview for the Bucs job as well. Assistant head coach/inside linebackers Winston Moss and safeties coach Darren Perry could both be candidates for the Raiders job as well.
• A lack of pass rush hurt the Packers all season, writes Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• Kareem Copeland of the Green Bay Press-Gazette explains what went wrong on a Hail Mary pass that led to a New York Giants touchdown Sunday.
• The Minnesota Vikings are planning to interview Indianapolis Colts defensive backs coach Alan Williams, a former colleague of Vikings coach Leslie Frazier, for their defensive coordinator job, according to the NFL Network via Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN.com.
• The Vikings' defense remains in flux, writes Dan Wiederer of the Star Tribune.
• The Chicago Bears denied the Vikings permission to interview defensive backs coach Jon Hoke for their defensive coordinator job, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.
• The Bears have completed their first interview for their general manager job, having spoken to New England Patriots executive Jason Licht, according to Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Bears special teams coordinator Dave Toub, a candidate for the Dolphins' head-coaching job, is now available on the open market as a special teams coach as well. Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com explains.
• Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reviews the Detroit Lions player by player.
• Detroit native Eminem gushed about the Lions in a recent GQ article, according to the Detroit Free Press. Among his observations: safety Louis Delmas is "ill."

The Chicago Bears have released a preliminary list of candidates to replace former general manager Jerry Angelo. All four have been granted permission to interview with the team, but a statement on the Bears' website made clear that additional candidates have not been ruled out and that current director of player personnel Tim Ruskell remains in play.

The four outsiders are:

• Phil Emery, the Kansas City Chiefs' director of college scouting
• Jason Licht, the New England Patriots' director of pro personnel
• Jimmy Raye, the San Diego Chargers director of player personnel
• Marc Ross, the New York Giants' director of college scouting

I don't want to pass much judgment on this list because I don't totally know what the Bears are up to. It's unusual for a team to announce its full slate of candidates for such an important job. Is this a new era of transparency? Or could there be a stealth candidate they're distracting us from? Call me a conspiracy theorist, but lots of crazy stuff happens this time of year. Could it be an attempt to demonstrate due diligence before ultimately hiring Ruskell?

There have been rumblings that Ruskell has a better-than-even chance to get the job. Let's just say that the Bears haven't stacked the deck with this pool. None of the four has experience as a general manager.

The most intriguing candidate might be Ross, who has been a rising star since the Philadelphia Eagles made him the league's youngest college scouting director in 2000, when he was 27. He is a Princeton graduate and has a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Stay tuned.