Bears should extend Lovie Smith: Who'd you rather have?

…I can’t say that he is worse than Lovie, and he has strong ties with the Bears

That’s probably the best reason to keep Lovie. The Bears have a good mix of youth and veteran players, which means they’re in good position to set themselves up for the future while maintaining success in the present. Keeping the staff in place (especially on offense) is the best way to move this team forward.

I’d take Fisher in a heartbeat over Lovie.

I question becasue I don’t know the rules there. A win-win IMO since Chicago would have a gauge as to where the team is heading next season.

Let him stay for the final year of his contract, if he can get the Bears back to the NFC Championship game, or better yet , the Super Bowl; Then he should get an extension.
Anything less than the NFCCG should result in not being extended

keep lovie

Continuity wins in the NFL.
And Hiring previously winning Super Bowl Coaches is a lottery.
No Head coach has won Super Bowls with 2 different teams.
And it doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.

Most successful coaches in the NFL stay put for a reason.
And while some bad decisions and a massive ton of misfortune have put the bears in a shalow grave for 3 years, the fact that we Bounced back, with the aid of luck or not, it’s a very very good sign that most pieces are in place.

The bears could’ve gone 15-1 if we had an offensive line against the Giants and Seahawks and packers (at lambeau).
THAT’s how close we were. And that is pretty damn close if you ask me.

The bears staff this year ADJUSTED with incredible efficiency this year. Something i hadn’t seem the bears do in years.

So yeah.
I’m happy with lovie.
We could have worse. Cable, Mangini, Haley, Caldwell, Childress, McDaniels, Del Rio, Kubiak, Singletary… Look at how many stinky coaches.

every few years does not make you a good coach. Everyone loves to talk about the sub-par play of the o-line. Sounds like a broken record. The o-line was an issue 4-5 years ago, so not getting it fixed is on Lovie. I get it, “defense wins championships”, but what good is a top 5 defense, when your offense don’t capitalize on the turnovers, don’t capitalize on great returns on special teams. Hester has to take it to the house, because the offense can’t even get it in from the 50. Anyone else will be at least as good as lovie. A blind squirrel can find a nut.

I think we need to come to the realization that… we’re oversetting our expectations for coaches, players, and organizations. If you can’t win the big one every year, you should be left to dry.

It’s insane. Not every year will be the best year, heck, there might be some bad ones. But, if it’s good, and if it’s going to be good. Stay the course.

Angelo tells Lovie, “here’s a stellar defense, stellar special teams, and mediocre offense with a suspect o-line. Now go win Chicago a Super Bowl”.

The Bears only issue over the Lovie Smith era has been, and continues to be, mediocre offensive talent and performance. Let’s see if the additions of Tice and Martz, given a couple of years, can impact player development AND player evaluation (they do meet about the draft with the staff after all)…

If we could post a top half of the league offense, we would be in contention every year. 2009 was the only year in Lovie’s tenure we weren’t top 5 in field position, takeaways, 3rd down defense %, and top half of the league in scoring defense.

I keep reading comments like “Lovie is horrible”, “coach x is better than Lovie”, “Lovie is mediocre at best”, etc.

But in the same writing I see “if he doesn’t get to NFCCG he needs to go”, or “if we get to the Super Bowl he can keep his job”

There are 30 teams each year that DON’T make the Super Bowl, yet only a handful(5-6) of coaches get fired/released each year…that tells me that the owners realize that parady is an actuality especially in the NFC, and that a coach who averages 9 wins a season, 3 playoffs in 7 years and two NFCCG is doing a pretty good job, it’s not like he is consistently dropping 6-10 records in the NFC West…

There have been 10 different NFC representatives for the Super Bowl in the last ten years and we are one of those teams and were a catastrophic QB injury away from our second trip in 5 years…

….. Keep Lovie to hell with Fisher . Well he could come in as an assistant or something .

I prefer his leadership and his temperament and his attitude. He’s a much better fit for Chicago – the city and the franchise. He won’t make excuses and won’t act like he doesn’t even care most of the time.

He’s had a lot of success and had to deal with dynasties in the AFC in Pittsburgh, New England and Indianapolis. It’s been nothing but parity in the NFC since Lovie took over. Nobody has dominated, and I’ve seen the Bears lose way too many winnable games. Whether that’s poor leadership or poor execution, both fall at Lovie’s feet.

Maybe “the grass isn’t greener”, because I really haven’t followed the Titans enough to say whether they’ve had similar losses, but I’m tired of this team losing to teams like Seattle and Washington at home and the Packers.

I don’t want to extend him because I’m not and never have been sold on Lovie Smith as leader. I also don’t know whether he’ll be the best option one year from now. I’m also not scared of a bidding war. If the Chicago Bears can’t win a bidding war for the coach of their choice, then they don’t deserve having the best fans.

Cowher, Fisher, maybe even Mike Holmgren could be out there to take over this team, and I’ll take the risk of losing Lovie Smith to make sure they have the best option.

We’re talking about the Chicago Bears, guys. We don’t have to worry about someone stealing our prom date and having to go stag.

I would rather they bring in some Offensive minded coach (brian schottenheimer would be my choice)…..Try to advance the offense and Cutlers career (even if hes a quitter and a baby, etc. etc)….Cause I have no faith in martz truth be known…..

That said I am not expecting a change….My main concern is that if there is an extension is that they over extend Lovie and they have no way of really backing out of the deal due to money concerns ala what happened with jauron in 01…..

I disagree. Lovie doesn’t have enough fire and passion on the sidelines to be a Chicago head coach. The idea of keeping a guy who doesn’t have the common sense to yell at this players or bare his arse at them in the locker room to get his point across is ridiculous. Where are his guts? He hasn’t done a damned thing here.

OK, now that I’ve got your attention, lol…….

Rather than chasing you around this post to state every argument I disagree with (or agree with, as there are some of those, as well) I will post a response as a fanpost later tonight to explain exactly why I have issues with Smith and with some of your reasoning on this post.

Get to the playoffs, check, win a playoff game, check, lose in conference game, check. Yea, not many teams fire coaches after a season like this, unless you are the Chargers with Shotty after going 14-2, and do you really want to be compared to the Chargers ownership and management?

we simply got out coached in the NFCCG. his mistakes and lack of in game changes, keeping control of his staff and inability to make good decisions while in the heat of battle are my reasons to move on.
1. his challenges (and lack of challenge) in the Redskins game were a foreshadow of what was to come. Jay clearly broke the plane with the ball, we all saw it, except for Lovie.
2. The NFCCG we came out flat and predictable. Rodgers was not changing plays at the line, he just knew exactly what we were going to do in every situation. Lovie does not game plan for different teams, he has admitted that and proven it on the field, repeatedly.
3. He’s a players coach. What that means is he doesn’t run tough practices, doesn’t use sleds (Tice was surprised at this and immediately re-instated the use of sleds) the players like that Lovie doesn’t run them hard and make them work for it. I have heard many times of Lovie going easy on practice due to hot weather.
4. Lovie is the Head Coach, that means all decisions go through him. Who here saw 5 and 7 step drops in the NFCCG and thought ‘Here we go again’ while Rodgers tore us up with short drops and screen passes? Get control of your OC and make that fat bastard run the ball. But Martz doesn’t like to make people do things he himself wont do.

Last thought on the ‘Cover 2’ (or Tampa 2 or any other variation that we drop back into). I though that people were ‘covered’ down field and the ‘holes’ were in the short yardage game either over the MLB or between the MLB and The CB. But our DBs just tackle after every catch. How about breaking up the pass? Anyone think of getting between the QB and WR to pick off the ball or knock the ball down? nope, cause they aren’t smart enough to read the QBs eyes, or fast enough to react. If they do jump the route they will most likely miss and then the WR goes to the house.

But getting rid of just Lovie won’t do. JA and his newly hired cronie Ruskell will have to accompany him on the unemployment line. And with the season ticket agent taking over as President, dont expect any monumental changes anytime soon.

We will have to change our motto to ‘Missed it by that much’ and hope for the best. Like a catastrophic plane crash in cheeseland.

We simply got out coached in the NFCCG. his mistakes and lack of in game changes, keeping control of his staff and inability to make good decisions while in the heat of battle are my reasons to move on.
1. his challenges (and lack of challenge) in the Redskins game were a foreshadow of what was to come. Jay clearly broke the plane with the ball, we all saw it, except for Lovie.
2. The NFCCG we came out flat and predictable. Rodgers was not changing plays at the line, he just knew exactly what we were going to do in every situation. Lovie does not game plan for different teams, he has admitted that and proven it on the field, repeatedly.
3. He’s a players coach. What that means is he doesn’t run tough practices, doesn’t use sleds (Tice was surprised at this and immediately re-instated the use of sleds) the players like the fact that Lovie doesn’t run them hard and make them work for it. I have heard many times of Lovie going easy on practices due to hot weather.
4. Lovie is the Head Coach, that means all decisions go through him. Who here saw 5 and 7 step drops in the NFCCG and thought ‘Here we go again’ while Rodgers tore us up with short drops and screen passes? Get control of your OC and make that fat bastard run the ball. But Martz doesn’t like to make people do things he himself wont do.

Last thought on the ‘Cover 2’ (or Tampa 2 or any other variation that we drop back into). I though that people were ‘covered’ down field and the ‘holes’ were in the short yardage game either over the MLB or between the MLB and The CB. But our DBs just tackle after every catch. How about breaking up the pass? Anyone think of getting between the QB and WR to pick off the ball or knock the ball down? nope, cause they aren’t smart enough to read the QBs eyes, or fast enough to react. If they do jump the route they will most likely miss and then the WR goes to the house.

But getting rid of just Lovie won’t do. JA and his newly hired cronie Ruskell will have to accompany him on the unemployment line. And with the season ticket agent taking over as President, dont expect any monumental changes anytime soon.

We will have to change our motto to ‘Missed it by that much’ and hope for the best. Like a catastrophic plane crash in cheeseland.