It’s official Chicago, the Chicago Bears have officially fired Lovie Smith.
Bears GM Phil Emery informed Smith that he would be releieved of duties as the Bears head coach. A move that has a lot of fans happy, while others hope Emery made the right decision.
Smith addressed his team for the final time this morning in a speech that lasted five minutes as he thanked the players for his time here in Chicago. Many players are confused as to why Smith was fired and leaving them in question of their job. One of those players might be linebacker Brian Urlacher who struggled with injuries this past season.
According to Brad Biggs, Devin Hester has seemed to take it the hardest as he’s “considereing retirement” from the NFL. Hester also went on to say that Bears fans “Got what they wanted” by the firing of Lovie Smith.
In his nine seasons with the Bears, Smith finished 81-63 with three division championships and an NFC Championship. This season the Bears started 7-1 but finished 10-6 and failed to make the playoffs.
During his time, the knock on Smith was his inability to establish a solid offensive threat to go along with a dominant Bears defense. The offensive line continued to be a major problem for the Bears the past few seasons leading the Bears to struggle on the offensive side of the ball.
Even with playmakers like Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Matt Forte, the Bears couldn’t pose a threat on offense to opposing teams this year and it might have coasted them a playoff spot this year.
Since Lovie took over in 2003, the Bears have ranked higher than 23rd in the NFL in offense only once. While they have ranked 28th or lower in four of Lovie’s seasons here in Chicago.
As Lovie exists Chicago, the offensive coaching staff is expected to follow suite as Phil Emery will have a press conference Tuesday morning at Halas Hall.
The question is now will Phil Emery bring in an offensive minded coach to Chicago? It’s a high possibility with names like Kyle Shanahan, Mike McCoy, Chip Kelly and Jon Gruden being floated around as candidates for the Bears job.
One thing certain though is the Bears head coaching job will be one of the most attractive jobs in the NFL.
LIFE AFTER LOVIE
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3 Comments
Is the job really that attractive? i think the bears have a rep as being dysfunctional and cheap, as lovie should have been fired along with angelo last year. the top GM candidates passed on the job knowing they would be stuck with lovie for at least a year. i like emery fine so far, just saying the bears way needs to change. hoping this fire/hire is the first step.
I think it’s an attractive job, but depends on who you ask. If a coach looks at this offense with Cutler, Marshall & Forte they could think it could be special with a good offensive line.
However, on the opposite side of it, you could have someone look at the defense and see it’s aging.
I think the job is highly attractive. The Bears are a major media market. The income a coach derives from being on radio shows, endorsements is lucrative. The team’s prospects for winning quickly are dubious, but it is certainly not a dire situation.