It Had to Happen Eventually

Here's my diatribe about the state of the Bears. (Fair warning.)

Typical GM: responsible for overall vision of the team. Hires players according to need, or in the case of the draft, gets the best talent available when it's his turn to pick. Oversees the coaching staff and overall success and progress of the team.

Jerry Angelo: reactionary at best. Keeps saying we have a plan, but things just didn't work out according to the plan. Gets credit for the Cutler trade, but Cutler initiated that and cited Chicago as the place where he wanted to play. Had Thomas Jones (solid running game) and picked up Cedric Benson (tons of potential/high draft pick) and somehow allowed a potentially devastating 1-2 punch to turn into Matt Forte (no slight on Forte). He should have held out on Benson who held out on the Bears as a rookie to teach him the lesson he eventually learned way back then. The money has to be earned.

We got Chris Williams, but one guy does not an offensive line make. Where are the backups? Where is the depth? We need nimble giants with long arms.

Somehow, amazingly, he's neutralized one of the most amazing athletes I've seen (Hester) by changing him out of the position he excelled in to running routes with little to no support. This one might also fall on Lovie.

Also, Angelo nearly lost Lance Briggs. In the interest of full disclosure, I would have been for it and it would have been the wrong decision. He offered mediocre money to low-ball Briggs after he had proven himself. He did eventually use the franchise tag to keep him, and ultimately they were able to work it out, but I wonder if that was Angelo, or a rescue job by Drew Rosenhaus.

This year, during a decline, Angelo brought in Pisa Tinoisamoa (I.R.), Kevin Jones (no better or different than Forte), and now Gaines Adams (useless so far) and agreed to bring in record-breaking loser Rod Marinelli to coach the D-line. That last one never quite made sense to me, except that Lovie and Rod are buddies. So now we have Bob Babich (horrible), Rod Marinelli (loser as head coach), and Lovie as the D-coordinator, which leaves Ron Turner all alone on an island.

Turner reports to Lovie, but Angelo has also allowed this offense to continue to suck. When your top picks are languishing (Olsen, Williams) or not playing (Iglesias), something is very wrong.

Head Coach: develops game plans for offense, defense, and special teams. Facilitates a team atmosphere, assesses and develops talent, oversees practices, makes final calls on game day.

Lovie Smith: purports to have a game plan, but I have never seen him make an adjustment when the game plan proves inadequate. Steve Smith stole a playoff game from us single-handedly. Later, Indianapolis adjusted to our defense and our defense could not correct itself and got typhooned by the end of our first Super Bowl bid in 20 years.

During the Super Bowl season, Robbie Gould had a perfect streak going, until he was set up for a kick, and because of some confusion on a ruling, Lovie called a timeout just as the kick went off, nullifying it. As a result, they still decided to kick, and Gould missed the second try, killing his streak. Lovie froze his own kicker. There have been a number of bad challenges, bad 4th and 1 decisions, and continual bad calls (Forte up the middle comes to mind) that are never corrected.

As for team atmosphere, all you need to know is that if you are friends with Lovie, you'll have a job whether you can perform at a high level or not. Look to Rod Marinelli, Bob Babich, Ron Turner, Pisa Tinoisamoa, Adam Archuleta, and the list goes on. He fired Ron Rivera, who had the defense in the top five list each year. That defense got us to the Super Bowl, and Rivera was looking like a good choice for a head coaching position. So, before Lovie got his contract extension, and to avoid any controversies down the road, he bumped Rivera in favor of his inexperienced pal Bob Babich. When that was a clear failure, he took over defensive coordination himself. Even worse results. The defense has been bottom five in the past two years.

Player development is a joke, and players know it. Every year, we see young, hungry receivers making amazing circus catches, then they disappear into obscurity when the season starts. Doesn't matter that our 1st-string receivers have trouble getting open, running routes, or catching the ball - we never see those younger guys. Johnny Knox would have faded into obscurity if not for the early injury to Aromashadu, and Aromashadu was only in because we don't have a genuine number one receiver.

There was a training philosophy that went into place when Lovie arrived, where he got athletic guys who were not as big but very fast. He brought in a trainer who helped with conditioning and diet. We've had catastrophic injuries year over year (Urlacher hasn't been healthy more years than he has been, we lost Mike Brown to injuries - he's playing a full season in KC now, etc.) which I think is connected to training at some level.

Even further, Lovie said all the right things when he got here, including making beating the Packers a top priority. Not something I would have expected, but it was great to hear it. The Packers swept us this year. After letting Rivera go, Lovie said "trust me". When does that trust finally pay off?

I'm not one of those people who needs the coach to be emotional and psychotic on the sidelines. I would, however, like more concrete answers for when I can expect to be a happy Bears fan again. I don't believe Lovie has the answers.

These two positions are pivotal for the daily attitude and ongoing development of the team. Both are in a severe downward spiral, in my opinion. I don't see any indications of improvement year over year, and there is an unprecedented wealth of quality coaches available right now. The smart thing would be to source a new, top-quality GM who can find and retain a top-quality head coach and staff. They should then work together to scrub the roster of ineffective players and fill in with top-quality players.

Regardless of how it plays out, I expect another rebuilding season in 2010. Figures, since we finally have a nice HD television and a DVR.