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How Much Of A Role Does Ernie Accorsi Really Have In These Bears' Searches?

(CBS) As part of their search for a new general manager and coach, Bears upper management looked for help by hiring former GM and well-respected Ernie Accorsi as a consultant.. Accorsi task was to help Chicago identify top candidates, Bears chairman George McCaskey and president Ted Phillips explained at a press conference before the search started.

What Accorsi's apparently not doing is helping the Bears actually interview candidates -- at least he didn't with Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase during an interview last week, Denver Post beat writer Mike Klis told the Mully and Hanley Show on Thursday morning.

"Accorsi wasn't a part of that interview, so I don't know what that means," Klis said.

From an outside perspective, this is somewhat puzzling. If Accorsi's only job is to identify candidates and nothing more, it would seem like a colossal waste of money (Accorsi was presumably handsomely paid for this gig) on the Bears' part. Groupthink and common sense largely determines who's a worthy candidate, so it's not as if a consultant is navigating much new ground.

And then there's the other question it raises. How much of a role does Accorsi even have in the search? And how will he give a quality recommendation if he's not sitting down in the interview? His absence from the interview points to it being all McCaskey and Phillips -- and contradicts what Phillips said himself at the press conference to announce the firings of Phil Emery and Marc Trestman.

"He definitely will be involved in the interview process, as will George and myself," Phillips said of Accorsi.

Listen to Klis' full interview with Mully and Hanley here. He goes more in-depth on Gase.

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