George McCaskey, who just completed his first season as the team's new chairman, has decided to relieve longtime general manager Jerry Angelo of his duties, according to a team source. Mike Martz has resigned, according to a source.
After a 7-3 start, the Bears collapsed down the stretch, losing five consecutive games. Although they won the season finale, against the Minnesota Vikings, the Bears had already been eliminated from playoff contention.
In a statement, the Bears said president Ted Phillips informed Angelo of the decision this morning.
The Bears will hold a press conference today at 4 pm in the Halas Hall theatre.
Meanwhile, Lovie Smith will remain as Bears coach, the team's website noted in a story about Angelo.
Angelo has been a lightning rod figure, widely criticized for his selection in the NFL Draft and even NFL free agency.
While the Bears roster boasts plenty of the league's top players at key positions, the team's lack of depth was evident this season, as they endured a rash of injuries.
And one of the biggest misfires was the decision to keep quarterback Caleb Hanie, who in his fourth year, went 0-4 as a starter after Jay Cutler broke his right thumb.
Since being hired in 2001, Angelo has helped the Bears win four division titles and make one Super Bowl appearance.
Before the Bears played the Denver Broncos, Angelo told the Sun-Times that he didn't have any plans to retire.
"When that day eventually comes, like it comes for all of us, hopefully I'll be in a position where I can determine when my time is," he said. "But, that will come from me, and no one else, or a rumor mill broadcast."
Asked about his contract through 2013, Angelo said, "As long as I feel good about what I'm doing and feel good, I'm going to continue do it.
"It's no more than that. I've been in football a long time, so I understand where people might pick up the idea."
The a new general manager will not make a difference. The Bears need new owners. The McCasky family cannot afford to compete with the other owners.
Finally. A move long overdue. Angelo's draft history is a joke.
Great move. I just hope the Bears don't promote Tim Ruskell - he didn't do to well in Seattle and he had JA teaching him the ropes here. It'll be an interesting week for sure!
Thank God for George McCaskey. Now let's get rid of some coaches and bring in Matt Flynn from Green Bay for quarterback.
This is all I wanted for Christmas, Santa. Not a car, or a house, or a boat.
This guy should have been fired three or four years ago.
The should immediately start talking to Bill Cowher.
It's about time. He's never been a very good GM to begin with.
Thank God he's gone!
Yes!!!!!!! Now a couple more and lets build this team right!!!!!
Sounds like Angelo never saw it coming.
GOOD.
Hope it hurts real good.
So, bye bye Jerry. Plenty have wanted this for a long time, but how good is George at hiring someone better? And how easy is it to compete in probably the toughest division anyway?
A Good Start.. Drive On!!
Bear Down!
Great News! The only way the Bears can really build a solid team is to flush out the front office. Hope this is just the beginning.
This is a day to celebrate, Bears fans! What a wonderful bit of news to receive today! He was always going to be the roadblock between the Bears becoming annually relevant, or relevant every 5-6 years. I only wish this day came sooner.
I am a little surprised by this, but not shocked at all.
Angelo grossly neglected the offensive line issues for 6-7 years. Carimi was a good pick, but as it played out ... it was too little, to late.
The Dallas Cowboy "cast offs" were effective at times and horrible at times. Barber cost Chicago games with miscues, Williams cost them games with drops and tipped passes, Hurd decided to turn gangster and created a huge distraction.
With the salary cap room, the 2011 offseason decisions were incredibly poor by Angelo.
The Matt Forte contract situation was a huge distraction, and a major problem. Angelo's constant attempt to low-ball Matt was bad PR for players and fans.
Neglect at the WR position was also a serious problem.
The Bears have great players, and the GM only needed to bring solid players in at the OL and WR spots. He didn't necessarily need to bring in All Pro-caliber players ... just players that could actually play in this league. He did not.
With approximately 18+ million in cap room, little was accomplished.
Caleb Hanie cannot play in this league.
Also, this will draw some fire, but, I hope Lovie Smith keeps his job. I think he is a good coach - and has done more with less than a lot of coaches. People in Chicago just don't like him because he doesn't get emotional like Ditka. Screw that. I love Iron Mike, but I don't need that as a fan. The Bear D has largely been solid since Lovie got there.
Outside of Jeff Fisher, I don't think there's a better coaching candidate for that team. Maybe Bill Cowher, but I think the Steelers are overrated and Cowher has always had talent to work with. Not so with Lovie.
FLAME ON!
Make Cliff Stein the GM! He's the smartest person in the entire organization.
Can we have Bill Cowher from Pittsburg as our GM, he was a great coach, now is a cbs analyst, maybe he could get us back on the right track.
Bill Polian anyone??
its about time! i like the guy. Mr. Angelo seemed like a nice guy when interviewed but c'mon!!!! how many draft busts is one guy allowed? how do you ignore the offensive line for years especially when you have a quaterback who everyone knows is tiring of the beating he is receiving. And defensively, Urlacher, Briggs and Peppers would flourish so much more in another system. They covered up the coaching inepitness. its a good day indeed. time to finish this off........get rid of Lovie and get Fischer, Cowher or Gruden..... Go Bears!
This move is long overdue. The O-line has been an issue since he got the job and he never fixed it. TIce has done a good job with what Angelo gave him to work with. Plus he didn't draft a lot of players he could've including Troy Polumalu, Tony Romo, Vince Wilfork, Steven Jackson and Jared Allen to name a few.
Way to go George!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if you have a teaspoonful of brain in your head you will contact Bill Pollian to be the new GM. I say that because his teams have been to where we want to go, the Superbowl on a consistant basis.
Time for the Bears to promote someone internally to save cash and continue with business as usual
Thank you George McCaskey for recognizing the need to take action to return our Chicago Bears to competitiveness!
I strongly recommend that you break old paradigms & seek young, progressive NFL leadership talent to lead our next generation Bears to multiple Super Bowl victories. This will be expensive, but the return on your investment will be well worth the pride & confidence your new management regime will instill in this original NFL franchise.
Go Bears!
Many of the bloggers here have been calling for this for a long time, so I'm curious to read the responses, which will probably center on the concept that " it's about time!' I'm not all that delighted about his dismissal but agree that it was time for a change. The draft picks and free agents targeted this year shouild be interesting.
Good riddence Jerry.
You ruined this team by not fixing the O line and VERY POOR DRAFT days in April..
Lovie needs to go too. Your to blame as well.
A new GM might want to bring in his own people.
Lets start by signing Free Agents and fixing the O line. We also need to draft a Wide Receiver and Safety, Corner Backs..
NO new GM will want to come in without hiring his own guy. Besides, Jeff Fisher is out there and wanting to be hired. The Bears would be idiotic to not interview him to replace Lovie.
YES!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!
Can we start placing bets on how quickly one of the Pullians will be named as GM?
Good Riddins' The man's fascination with drafting unknown DEs over the years when the Bears desperately needed OL help was always a mystery to me. I thought it was amazing the Bears actually hired him away from Tampa bay....one of the losingest franchises in the league! it was like investing in Edsels. If the Bears are going to hire from another organization, at least make it a winning one
Wow, I sure didn't see that coming! Even though I never thought Angelo was a total moron (more like 2/3 moron), this is great news. Of course, it's tempered by the fact that they'll keep the total moron, Lovie, as coach. Can we get the chant going:
COWHER! COWHER! COWHER!
Maybe even a billboard.
Why did this take so long? Now a housecleaning is inorder starting with Martz and probably an entire new scouting staff, which is really needed after all the poor draft choices and lousy free agent signings. Maybe the moves the Colts made influenced McCaskey, or could it have been the Hurd situation?
Happy New Year to all Bears fans!
As long as lovie is still coach and ruskell has any say the bears are still doomed. If George really wants to be the MAN of a championship team then he needs to clean house. Toub is the only coach worth keeping and if they don't move him to a cord. position they will lose him. I hope they bring in a GM that has some say-so because none of the coaches/ management team are worth crap. Really hope to be excited about next year which starts with the draft, start cutting dead weight players, sign forte. I could live with a couple of 3-6 win seasons if it means turning this once great franchise around.
Thank god! JA was a joke as a GM. Please bring someone in with experience and knows how to evaluate talent or give Lovie 3 years to build through the draft. If he can't do it, fire him too.
All I can say is that the bears took long enough to make this decision. I have never been a Jerry Angelo fan since day one. While at Tampa bay he was known for building defense and letting the offense flounder. His draft picks where for the most part embarrassing.
Now to work on getting a REAL head coach. What has being a player’s coach brought to the bears? Don't waste a potentially great quarterback!!!
I only route for the bears because I was born and raised in this city. I have been a Steelers fan since 1975 my first exposure to them by fellow air force buddies.
It's about time and his failure to provide a back up t5o Cutler is proof enough.
How is Lovie getting off scott-free?
Just three words...ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!!!
Three more words...Don't Hire Ruskell!
And the last three: Hire Phil Savage.....
He has a ton of experience in talent evaluation, and has spent the last 2 seasons deep-diving into the spread offense to start building a road-map of translation of skills, to determine what is required of each position, and how it translates to NFL skill sets. He would be a good starting point to rebuild this roster, which is aging, and the parts that aren't old are untalented....
I am looking forward to the press conference this afternoon, to see what they have in mind, but I am also wondering why the coaching staff gets a pass? Maybe they want the new GM to be the bad guy, rather than looking like the new boss cleaning house all the way down....
Oh my God I did it. I actually did it.
Angelo is gone thanks to me. You look back at all my posts bashing Angelo for all his terrile drafts and my work has finally paid off. The McCAaskeys finaelly listned to me.
Sean Iwant the Suntimes to run a cover story on me. I want all of Chicago to know how hard I worked trying to bring Angelo down. I want media coverage. I want you to get me on CSN sports talk, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN and the NFL network.
Angelo would still be here two day if it wasnt four me. I hammered him for so long that the mcCaskeys finally gave way. I am simply awsome.
Wow I still can't believe it but I finally did it. Creighton, you are them man yes I now thank you hahahahah.
Nooooooooo!!!!!! Oh, this is HORRIBLE. I am so sick to my stomach. I knew something like ths could be coming. First Jim Hendry went down. I cried and cried over that. And now the bestest and wonderfulest GM to ever occupy a corner office in any sport.
I have to log off for today. I can't handle this anymore.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! Bouncing 2 out of 3 isn't bad. Maybe next year, Smith will get his "due."
Please, please, George don't stop now.
We all know who should go next. If not his name sounds like dovie.
This man has proven his incompetence time and time again.
Just because the family likes him and he is a nice guy should have no bearing
on this no brainer. BYE BYE DOVIE !
The only trouble with what they did is it should have started higher up with Philips, Ruskel, Angelo, and Smith. None of these guys are good telent evaluators and that is the reason why the Bears have such little depth to plug in when it is needed.
Hire the guy who help Ted Thompson in GB. Give him what he needs and get everybody out of his way.
Lovie will then coach who he is given which won't last long. I think Lovie is a good football coach and his players play hard for him. But I have gotten sick of his condescending attitude towards reporters who ask him tough questions.
George McCaskey thank you, and I got a short list of People I want to thank.
Kevin Armstead, SUCK IT!
Tripper, SUCK IT!
Kevin MD, SUCK IT!
Brando, SUCK IT TWICE AS HARD AS ALL OF THEM PUT TOGETHER!!!!!!!
Who was right? Who was right? Years and tears of crap from you guys about that clown Jerry Angelo. No your roles and shut your mouths! "Jerry Angelo is the best GM in football" "Thank you Mr. Angelo your the best" "Another great Angelo draft pick" "Oh you think you know more than Mr. Angelo Creighton? Well he is the best GM in Bears history, maybe nfl history."
Yes I did know more than him and I only got two words for you clowns today, SUCK IT, SUCK IT FOR 6 YEARS OF YOUR GARBAGE. Oh and Brad Biggs over at the Trib you can suck it too. Are first debate was about Jerry Angelo, and the offensive line. You thought he was good back then and that he knew how to build a good O-Line. Just kidding, still love you Brad, I know you still checkout the blog, but today you can suck it.
I know you don't like these kinds of posts Sean, but almost 6 years of crap I put up with because of my very first post on this blog wanting a different GM, how many fake Creighton's? How mant insults? How many personal attacks over the Clown Prince og GM's Jerry Angelo. I earned this post.
Jerry Angelo, GET THE #### OUT OF MY CITY AND AWAY FROM MY FOOTBALL TEAM! HE GONE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co6WMzDOh1o&ob=av3e
This is a great day for Beardom! But please don't stop there yet, George. We've endured enough of Lovie and his Yes-people already. I can't still forgive him for firing Rivera who was a true Bear. I'd say bring on Jeff Fisher as head coach, Tom Thayer and Singletary as his OCs, and make Ditka the GM. Bear mystique. That's what your grandfather George would have wanted!
Great!! Now, let's get a new field, a retractable roof and cheerleaders!!! Let's throw the ball longer than 20 yards at least 4 times a game, and let's run plays that are not so predictable like: run left, run right, pass 6 yards...punt.
This is crazy. Yes, Angelo was terrible. Who hired him? Ted Phillips is the ONLY common thread all these terrible years. Obviously the McCaskey's aren't going to fire themselves. Now, Phillips is going to be the person looking for a replacement for Angelo. What talented GM candidate would want to work for Phillips and be stuck with Lovie? What an absolute joke. The McCaskey's should have followed the lead of the Blackhawks and most recently the Cubs. It ALWAYS starts at the top, regardless of the "industry". Until Phillips is gone, the Bears will never win.
I agree 110%. These are good changes but too insignificant to really change the Bears in any lastingly meaningful way. Failing ownership change (unlikely to happen while Virginia is alive) George really does need to at least also sweep Lovie out. What new GM worth a darn is going to want to inherit Angelo's coach?
I'll celebrate when I know the next guy hired is a step up.
Angelo did some good things, and some bad things during his tenure with the Bears. He was so-so in my opinion. The Cutler trade was huge for a team that seemed to be snake-bitten when it came to franchise quarterbacks. But these last few seasons the o-line was laughably miserable and the receiving corps was in need of upgrades that never happened.
We'll see what happens I guess.
My guess is that will be the move. I think they have bigger ideas, but ultimately any GM worth having will want to hire his own coach. Lovie has fired about 10 different coordinators over the course of his tenure. He is just as guilty of incompetence as JA.
I agree with previous poster. The Bears will not compete until the McCaskey/Halas family sells the team. They are to cheap to get good players, and personnel.
Lovie Smith has more flaws as a coach than Custer had Indians...
The whole collapse of the Bears is strickly on the shoulders of Mr Angelo! For years he has made ill faded decisions but none as bad as this year. Regardless of Cutlers injury the Bears had no veteran backup that could at least keep the Bears competive and possibly send them into the playoffs. The Bears were 7-3 and on a roll, a veteran QB could have gave them that drive they needed to score points. Coaches can only work with what they have and Angelo knew it would come down to signing a another QB but didn't even make an attempt. Angelo did not invest in the OL leaving Tice to use patch work just to keep the line together. The owners of the Bears should have also stepped in. What frustrated me is there was backup QB's out there and making the playoff would have paid for that investment. Instead you go with a 2 string who should have not been a 2 string, he had no games or snaps under his belt and was bascially setup to fail. Our 3 string played better then Hanie!! Remember the 85 Bears, we at least at a backup OB who could keep us in games and a good competive club has prepared for this type of shortfall, its obvious the Bears did not which is why they struggle to stay in the elite bracket. We beat the crap out of the Lions once we started running on all 8 cylinders but went out like a Bear cub in the end!
The Steelers are overrated? They've been the best team over the past 50 years, how is that overrated?
Much ado about nothing. Yeah, getting rid of an incompetent GM was good, but so what? Angelo was only a symptom of the problem that starts with the McCheapskys. If George McCaskey were serious about winning, he would have fired Ted Phillips, hired Bill Polian, and let it be known that the Bears will spend whatever it takes to win. (There's an ESPN story that the Bears might hire the Polians, but that seems rather unlikely. They already have a team president -- who should have been fired, or at least sent back to the accounting dept -- and I can't imagine any GM worth his salt who would agree to run a team that tells him that he's stuck with their head coach.
Read the Sun Times column today by Joe Cowley. He obviously knows what he's talking about and points out the problems that remain on this team. Very unlikely that anything good is going to happen as long as these jerks own the Bears.
Who said the Steelers are overrated? They've been arguably most consistent franchise in the NFL!
Actually it was Estevenj who said the Steelers where overrated. But he was talking about Cowher who he feels always had a ton of talent and was overrated. Which is not exactly true. Cowher took over a franchise that had been to the playoffs once in 8 years. HE took the Steelers to the playoffs 10 times in 15 years, he did this 4 times with Neil O'Donnel as his QB, 2 times with Mike Tomczak, 2 times with Kordell Stewart, and once with Tommy Maddux, he only Ben for 3 season before he retired. The man had 3 losing seasons in 15 years. That's a hell of a damn football coach.
However I no longer like him for the Bears head coaching job, I feel he has been out of the league for to long and it's hard to recapture what you had with one team and bring it to another.
Here is my thinking, it doesn't matter if you have Smith anymore, you see Smith basically runs the defense and lets the OC do what he wants. The OC for the Bears is basically a head coach of half a team, he lets the guy handle it and then if he screws up he chucks him under the bus. What the Bears need is a really good OC. However most really good OC's are head coaches already or work for an offensive minded head coach. But the Bears have a franchise QB and that can make any coaches career. Basically they need someone who will come in here and build the team around Cutler instead of building the team around defense and special teams. Almost every top team in the league has a franchise QB and the team is built around that player. Defense is the past and offense is the future, that's just the way the league is going and has been going for awhile. It would be nice to have both but it's time to start helping out the player that makes the most difference and that is Jay Cutler.
I stand by my comments about Bill Cowher. He had better ownership and management. He had long-term, dominant talent and depth for many of those years - despite the problems at QB.
It is not all about offense. And he coached in a league where the rules were not geared towards the passing game.
Cowher is a very, very good coach. I don't personally believe he could have done as well as Lovie has with the level of talent Lovie was provided by JA.
If you subscribe to the belief that the GM is bad - then you are subscribing to the fact he cannot provide appropriate talent to the team. That means, the coach is working with inferior talent.
That is indisputable.
It should be noted, we are not in total disagreement here. I am not sure that a new GM/Lovie combo will work.
Creighton and Sean, you can sit there and cite Cowher's resume all you want. But there are some constants to be considered with his situation.
The AFC Central/North during his tenure was not always the best division.
He arguable had best ownership in the league.
He was HANDED the Superbowl versus Seattle by the officials.
He may not have had a franchise QB until late in the game - but he had a ton of talent and NFL referee favoritism to match.
Are you saying that Steeler's ownership is equal to the Bears?
LET ME BE CLEAR. I THINK COWHER IS A VERY GOOD COACH. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT HE COULD HAVE DONE MUCH BETTER WITH THE BEARS THAN LOVIE.
If you look at the pro bowlers and the success the Bears have over the past ten years, I think it's difficult to argue that the GM sucks AND the coach sucks.
Those arguments contradict one another. If the Bears had not been to a Superbowl, or won any division titles, or had no playoff appearances, that's a fair argument.
That is not the case.
Now, let me say this: I think, with a new GM, it may be a better situation for the Bears to let Lovie go. But that doesn't change the logic:
If the GM doesn't give the coach the right personnel, how can you accurately judge the coaches performance.
Quick clarification if you don't want to read my diatribe:
The Steelers are obviously the best run organization in sports. That was part of my point. Bill Cowher is a VERY GOOD coach, but he also reaped the benefit of being the coach of the Steelers. Same goes for Mike Tomlin.
A side note: the Cowher QB argument doesn't hold water because elite QB play was not as critical when he was coaching as it is today. This is largely due to rule changes.
The Bears ARE NOT the best run organization in sports ... and if you subscribe to the belief that Angelo provided inferior talent, Lovie's accomplishments are very impressive.
I am not saying Cowher isn't a great coach. He absolutely is. I just don't think he would have done much better than Lovie with Angelo and the Mcaskey's shallow pockets.
I am looking at the big picture here.
Estevenj said, "I think the Steelers are overrated ..."
Did something happen in the nfl over the lst 4 years that made it different than the one Cowher was in. It's not like he has been gone a decade. What the last two years QB play erupted I am pretty sure it's been trending that way for about 14-15 years. Kinda why QB's tend to be the first pick in the drafts so often.
Sure Cowher was part of a great organization, that he helped build backup after it only made the playoffs once in 7 years. Your not giving Cowher credit for helping build up that organization, he picked his coaches and he had his hands in scouting, drafting and every player that played for him, just like most head coaches.
So Cowher brought in Dick LeBeau, Ken Whisenhunt, Chan Gailey, Marvin Lewis, Dom Capers, he picked his staff. Those are some pretty good picks and many have moved on to head coaching offers after working with Cowher.
Would you like to go over Lovie's picks for coaches, he just fired another one. Lovie picks coaches of the scrap heap. Cowher didn't fire his coaches they got offered jobs and he had a big hand in developing these guys. While most of his guys didn;t have great runs as head coaches, Cowher just kept winning.
I know one thing, I have seen Lovie make a ton of mistakes in his time, from coaching staff picks, to taking points off the board to starting guys who shouldn't start, from hiring his friends and promoting them to jobs they don;t deserve, to chasing off guys like Rivera because he is insecure. Fill me in on all these great moves Lovie has made. We already know he has and had more power than Angelo, why don;t you fill me in on his greatness. Did he develop some defense I don;t know about? Hire a great coaching staff? Make great in game adjustments? Manage the clock well? Take smart timeouts? Develop a lot of players? He always insists he has the horses to get it done and he does promote guys. What did you think of that brilliant benching of Jennings and starting Bowman?
Creighton, as usual, your solid analysis is clouded by your gross lack of objectivity and inability to look at the big picture.
Do not put words into my mouth.
1. If you subscribe to the fact that the GM of an NFL team is doing a poor job, then you have to admit he has provided INFERIOR TALENT to the roster. Therfore, logic dictates that the head coach is WORKING WITH INFERIOR TALENT. Look at Lovie's resume, his win-loss record, his playoff appearances, and his division titles. All of that was accomplished with a BAD GM PROVIDING INFERIOR TALENT.
Do you understand the logic? I respect your analysis, but question your ability to comprehend the logic. Same goes for you, Sean.
2. The Steelers ARE OVERRATED. Watch the last three Superbowl appearances. They were treated like the damned home team. I couldn't give two craps about Arizona and Seattle. I hate Green Bay. Watching those games, and even rooting for Pittsburgh in two of them, I felt the Steelers got calls that were absolutley ridiculous. Go watch the Arizona game. Steeler linenmen WERE TACKLING ARIZONA PASS RUSHERS on the final drive. IT WAS A GODDAMNED JOKE.
3. Bill Cowher is a VERY GOOD COACH.
4. Lovie has not managed his assistants as well as Bill Cowher did. That is true. However, go and check the W-L records as HEAD COACHES of Dom Capers, Marvin Lewis, Dick Lebeau, and *cough* Chan Galey - against the likes of Mike Martz and Mike Tice. THEN, factor in the LACK OF TALENT the Bears coaching staff was provided.
Again, I don't disagree with you, but you are unecessarily hard on Lovie AND you make arguments out of both sides of your mouth that contradict one another.
5. Yes, Creighton, the QBs int he past 4-6 years have gotten way more calls and additional rule changes that favor the passing game.
Finally, if the Bears hired Cowher, I would be excited. If any of you would really turn back the clock - objectively - you would know there were A LOT of Pitt fans who wanted him fired before he won that farce of a Superbowl against Seattle. History looks back upon the man as a savior. I just look upon him as a very good coach who reaped the benefit of a great front office and favoritism from the league and its officials. Let me reiterate, I think Cowher was a very good coach.
I am not going to argue with your ridiculous "clock management" points. If you truly were a researcher of statistics, you would know that every coach, from Bellichik to Garrett to Harbaugh, has been blasted more than a few times over those issues this season.
Creighton, your a good analyst. Stop arguing points that can be made of every coach in the entire league.
THIS IS THE KEY ARGUMENT THAT YOU'RE MISSING:
If you subscribe to the fact that the GM is providing the team with inferior talent, you cannot accurately judge the head coaches performance.
Oh I understand the logic just fine. But what your doing is a fallacy, your saying because one was bad the other must be good. Not the actual case in the nfl, I can find bad coaches and bad GM's that have made good choices. Rather than look at the whole you need to look at it on a case by case basis. Your only looking at one logical connective rather than the hundreds or thousands that actually have taken place. What your doing is called generality. While your points may have merit it's not exactly what happened.
We both agree Angelo was bad, but that does not make Lovie good. Or in this case consistant. If Angelo worked alone and made all the calls your point would hold a lot more merit, but he didn't work alone. Angelo was nothing more than a concensus builder, he asked everyone what they thought and the majority generally ruled. However Angelo almost never did anything without Lovie's okay and if Lovie really wanted something he got it.
I won't blmae Angelo for Martz or any of the coaches because he didn't do that. I won;t give Lovie credit for Toub and Rivera because Bobby DePaul brought both of them in before Lovie was established.
Angelo gave Lovie Julius Peppers, Brian Urlacher(although both only happened to come here after Brian was already here), Mike Brown(same as Urlacher), Tillman, Briggs, Goon(Lovie wanted Goon and he got him). You can't say Angelo didn't give Lovie what he wanted on offense. 2 Defensive player of the year level players. You don;t think Lovie has been given gifts? How many games has Dave Toub saved for Lovie? You think Lovie did everything alone?
All did is take the things I know for sure about Lovie and the Bears and put them on the table. He chased Ron Rivera out of town and tried to black ball him. He has regularly had one of the easiest scheduels in the nfl, he has been bailed out by special teams but never bailed them out. He brought in Martz, premoted Babich, went with a system where thought all his coaches should come from college, that didn't even make it a year before he started firing his personal choices.
Do you think Lovie ever went to Angelo and said we need recievers and offensive line help asap and Angelo was like no?
Do you know why I think the Bears have one games with Smith? Brian Urlacher, I have seen the defense without him and it sucks. The defense has never gotten to the level it did in 05 and 06 with Rivera, that man helped Lovie win some games. Special teams under Toub helped Lovie win some games. Lovie wanted Rod Marinelli and said Rod would develop pass rushers for him, well he failed at that so they went and got Peppers and still the pass rush is inconsistant(Lovie's own words). Making the playoffs once in 5 years is not good, is it? Jay Cutler, Jay Cutler seems to be a lot more valuable than most people thought.
So basically my thought is this Lovie has some wins because he has had a lot of easy scheduels, Brian Urlacher, Ron Rivera, Dave Toub, Devin Hester(Special teams only), Peppers, Jay Cutler, and now Matt Forte. Oh and the fact that his team was almost totally helathy last year and a lot of teams he played were ripped up helped too. I could also go over some of his regular bone headed moves, Tice is currently proof of one of them, why did he even hire Martz. You do know that I called that one before Martz got job right?
Why was Angelo bad? Well that's pretty simple. But there was a lot more puppet to Angelo than their was GM. Don't kid yourself, bad teams have won in the nfl before, and so have bad coaches.
Now like I said I don't think Lovie is all bad, there is good Lovie and Bad Lovie. In the end we will figure which he was more of. To me, as it stands, he has been a mediocre coach. Oh and his record over the last 5 years is 3 games over 500 with one division win. I would not call that good. Also the one thing that is missing from Lovie from what I have seen is this, I have never seen him do one thing as a coach exceptionally well. In fact when I think of Lovie I think, consistanly mediocre. One recent thing I have noticed about Smith that I really don't like is this. He has really taken to throwing people under the bus to save himself and is playing a lot of games up at Halas hall to protect himself.
Angelo is easy, he couldn't draft, but he did bring in some FA's and he did not want Martz. Angelo and DePaul brought in Toub and Rivera. Angelo deserved to get fired, no question but he was not all bad. You got Jay Cutler don't you? Funny thing is something tells me Lovie didn't want him and he got out voted. Lovie was pretty happy with Orton. Bu tnobody really knows about that one.
You know it was 5-6 years ago I said Angelo sucks on this board, and everyone came after me including Biggs. No one listened to me about him back then, nobody believed me about the offensive line which was my first debate on this board with Brad. Turns out I was right, I just didn't like what I saw in the drafting and history of hte man, and that was after a Super Bowl loss and Forbes naming Angelo a top 10 GM. Not exactly a popular stance. I have seen enough of Lovie, I know what he is, he is the Rex Grossman of coaching, and like Rex, he's not good enough. oh that reminds me I was right about Rex too, and Orton, and better stop cause it's a long list.
Now I don't know what words you think I put in your mouth, but I just asked you questions and stated my opinion, if you didn;t like the answers to some of the questions, I didn't put them in your mouth, you did. I don't know how to throw my voice, I can't words in peoples mouths, it's impossible.
Well in the words of Jerry Angelo, "I hope that's a bridge under troubled waters."
This is for you man as reported by Pompei and yes I am ashamed I am using a Pompei quote. "multiple sources said there is an internal movement to influence Phillips and team ownership to seriously consider personnel director Tim Ruskell for the job."
Who do you think is heading that movement? Looks like coach Smith wants a puppet for the new year. He would also make a great fall guy if things don't go well for the most powerful man at Halas hall. Plus he could point the finger at Phillips and say this is the GM you gave me. Ruskell the man who makes Angelo look like a nfl GM.
Well lets hope it's not true.
Creighton,
We honestly agree on more points than we disagree. So let's just leave it there.
:)
Late