Why Bears Have No Reason to Fire Lovie Smith After GM Jerry Angelo Is Canned
Published by Ryan Phillips on January 3, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears fired general manager Jerry Angelo today and have announced that Lovie Smith will return as head coach. Frankly, both moves are the right ones.
Angelo just wrapped up his 11th season as the Bears’ GM and things looked good early on. The Bears started 7-3 before stumbling to an 8-8 finish. Many would attribute the team’s collapse to the losses of star offensive players Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, but Chicago had plenty of holes.
Angelo’s teams have underachieved, specifically this season, because of a failure to populate the roster with solid backups. The Bears finished this season with seven starters on injured reserve, but a solidly built roster would have been able to at least absorb some of that misfortune.
Angelo also failed to work out a contract extension with Forte, who was dominating early in the season. He only offered the running back a deal worth between $13 million and $14 million guaranteed. It was a huge public relations disaster and turned off many fans.
Now that Angelo is gone, there is no reason to remove Smith from his position. It is the job of the general manager to provide the depth that was missing from the Bears this season and Smith’s team suffered as a result. He was stuck running Caleb Hanie and Josh McCown out under center instead of a capable backup quarterback.
Meanwhile, the Bears’ offensive line has been awful for several years which has held the offense back as well.
In his eight years with the franchise, Smith’s teams have a 71-57 record and have won three NFC North titles. While the Bears have just one playoff berth in the past five seasons, that should be more attributed to a lack of talent on offense than poor coaching.
Smith deserves another year, hopefully with an improved roster.
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