Lovie Smith
Chicago Bears Make Big Free Agent Splash — Add Peppers & Taylor
Friday, March 5th, 2010 | Chicago Bears, NFL, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bears wasted no time luring 3 big time free agents to the lakefront of Chicago. The Bears signed the top free agent available – 5-time Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers away from the Carolina Panthers. Peppers will be a difference-maker on the front line of the Bears defense and should help free some space for Tommie Harris, Alex Brown, Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs to wreak some major havoc on every play.
The Bears also got some running back help by signing Chester Taylor away from the NFC North division rival Minnesota Vikings. Taylor will team with incumbent runner Matt Forte to provide a formidable rushing/receiving duo for Quarterback Jay Cutler.
The Bears also landed a legitimate tight end – Brandon Manumaleuna from the San Diego Chargers – who will fit in well in new Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz’s style of offense. That could mean the imminent departure of under-achieving tight end Greg Olsen after just 3 seasons in a Bears uniform.
It’s pretty clear that GM Jerry Angleo and Head Coach Lovie Smith were really desperate this off-season to go out and throw mega-bucks at 3 different free agents. While this doesn’t guarantee anything, a trip to the playoffs in 2010 could save both of their jobs. We’ll see how it all shakes out during the 2010 NFL schedule…
Chicago Bears Retain Head Coach Lovie Smith, Fire Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 | Chicago Bears, General, Indianapolis Colts, NFL, Notre Dame, Sports, USC Trojans | No Comments
The Chicago Bears announced that Lovie Smith will return for his 7th year as Bears head coach in 2010, but that offensive coordinator Ron Turner would be relieved of his duties. Smith has 2 years left on his contract with the Bears and would have been owed $11 million if the Bears decided to part ways with Smith in order to go with a more high-profile coach like a Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden or Brian Billick.
Lovie Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006 against the Indianapolis Colts, a game which they lost. But since then, things have been downright brutal on the lakefront of Chicago – 7-9, 9-7 and 7-9 – and 3 straight years without making the playoffs. Smith assumed the defensive play-calling role in 2009, but the Bears front took that play-calling role away from him after the season. In 2010, Smith will be the head coach, and the Bears will have a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator.
Bears President Ted Phillips had this to say about the state of affairs with the Bears: “This has been a frustrating season to say the least. We’ve had inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. Personally, it’s been the most frustrating year since I’ve been here… The last three years, it’s been clear nobody did a good enough job in the organization. Nobody did… If we didn’t believe as an organization that Lovie and Jerry [Angelo - Bears' General Manager] could turn this around and get us back to our winning ways, then there would have been other changes made… We all know what we need to do. We’re not happy. We’re not happy with the season we had. We’re not happy with the last three years, and the expectation is to turn it around in 2010. At the end of 2010, we’ll go through another evaluation process and see where we’re at.”
Pretty candid.
Former Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis, former St. Louis Rams Head Coach Mike Martz and current USC Trojans offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates have thrown their names into the ring for the Bears offensive coordinator position.
On the defensive side, former Detroits Lions Head Coach and current defensive line coach Rod Marinelli could be considered for the defensive coordinator position. But the Bears could also go outside the organization.
Also on the firing line were quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton, tight ends coach Rob Boras, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, and assistant coaches Luke Butkus and Charles London.
We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything from the Bears about the hiring of their new offensive and defensive coordinators.
Chicago Sports Teams – Downright Bad – Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls…
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | Chicago 2016 Olympics, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Rio de Janeiro, Sports | 1 Comment
WOW – it has been a rough year for Chicago sports teams. The Bears and Bulls are just continuing the downward trend for Chicago sports teams. Throw in the fact that the City lost out on the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics this past October, and you wonder why they even field teams in the “Second City.”
Both MLB teams allowed August collapses to dictate disappointing finishes in 2009. The White Sox (79-83; .488 winning percentage) finished 7.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central Division, while the Cubs (83-78; .516 winning percentage) finished 7.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the American League Central Division. Obviously neither team qualified for the playoffs.
While the Bears and Bulls had promising starts to their respective seasons, things have quickly turned for the worse for each team.
The Bears started off by winning 3 of their first 4 games, but a current 4-game losing streak has the Bears sitting at 4-7. With games against the Vikings, Ravens and Packers (teams with winning records) still on the schedule, a 6-10 finish looks like a best-case scenario. A Bears loss to either the Rams (1 win) or Lions (2 wins) could end up costing Head Coach Lovie Smith his job. While the defense has been pretty awful all season long, the biggest disappointments come on the offensive side of the ball. During the off-season preceding the season, the Bears traded 2 1st round draft picks and then-starting QB Kyle Orton to acquire “franchise player” Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos. Cutler has been a huge enigma in 2009 – while he has thrown for 2671 yards and 16 TD’s and completed over 62% of his passes, he has also thrown a league-high 20 interceptions. His 74.4 passer rating is well below his career 83.9 passer rating. Coupled with Matt Forte’s sophomore slump (1,238 yards rushing with 8 TD’s in 2008 v. 543 yards rushing with 3 TD’s in 2009), it looks like the Bears have a lot of work to do if they want to turn this thing around.
The same could be said for the Bulls. The Bulls started the season with a 6-4 record through their 1st 10 games. But their annual “Circus Road Trip” away from the United Center proved costly. They lost the last 5 games of the trip and now sit at a dismal 6-9. Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas are both injured, and Derrick Rose is still trying to get back to his top form after dealing with an ankle injury during the pre-season which limited his play. There are a few bright spots for the Bulls. #1 – the Eastern Conference is just awful – even at 3 games under .500 the Bulls would still qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today. #2 – Luol Deng (18.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game) and Joakim Noah (11.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game) have looked great early on. #3 – the Bulls are set up well salary-cap-wise for the 2010 free agent feeding frenzy – which will include the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Amari Stoudamire and Chris Bosh.
Sorry Chicago sports fans – looks like you better root real hard for the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup in 2010…
Lovie is making deals
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | Chicago Bears, NFL | No Comments
The Chicago Bears are hard at working making big deals this off season. Rob Marinelli will be the assistant head coach/defensive line. As most NFL fans know Marinelli is the recorded breaking ex head coach of the lions that wa 0-16 this year. Yes, they did not win one game. Two years after blowing the Super Bowl the Bears are hiring Rob Marinelli? Lovie and Marinelli both had coaching positions with Tampa Bay. Looks like Lovie likes to hire friends, first Bob Babich and now the coach for the worst team in NFL history. I guess if you look at Chicago sports this is not a big surprise, the Cubs have not won the World Series in over 100 years and got swept the last two years in the playoff but fans keep buying tickets. Let see what else the Bears do this year, I think they should try and sign Michael Vick and Plaxico they are both great players.
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