This is getting ri-darn-diculous. After suffering through Martz gloating about Roy Williams catching 70-80 balls this year (six so far), Olin's departure, the offensive line, the safety shuffle, and Ditka knows how many more things, the 2-3 Bears are looking at various times old, subpar, scheme-restrictive, and bullheadedly stupid (coaching wise). And one man has the power to make the changes necessary to turn this franchise around: George "Halas" McCaskey (I give him that nickname in hopes that he strives to that level of awesomeness). Jump on a crack to fire Jerry's butt.
I really tried to avoid making this post along the lines of "Fire Jerry!" or "the Bears are doomed" but every time I wrote something I false-started almost as much as our line, drawn back into the rabble-rabble. We know by now Jerry Angelo is not going to lead us out the fog successfully - his track record has been cemented this year with questionable offseason moves and thinking we had an NFL caliber O-line (and save any "he picked Carimi talk," if he didn't he would have been choked by the ghosts of Bears' past) only to now be investigating free agent options when we have no significant (i.e. season-ending) injuries there. The definition of "wrong" should officially be changed to "what Angelo was when he thought Omiyale would be a great F.A. pickup."
That being said, the problem is even if Angelo gets driven out to the forest and left there, when we get back home we have Mr. Ruskell smiling and saying "I'm ready to be just like Jerry." Which he is, unfortunately. That leaves this mess to be cleaned up by one man: George McCaskey, the Bears new chairman. McCaskey hasn't been heard much of since his hiring; I perused a few articles talking about his past, how he was settling into his new role, and so on. He's a soft-spoken guy that, at the time of his hiring, seemed to want to stay out of the way and let Phillips continue to run the show. But, at this stage of the game, McCaskey needs to be figuring out exactly what kind of mark he wants to put on the Bears, if any, now that he's in charge.
Ted Phillips is a strange entity to me; he's like the wizard of Oz, no, that's not right, he's more like the guy that answers the door ("No one sees the Wizard!"). Phillips is the Bears' middle man that, since 1999, has effectivelyessentially run the franchise, obeying the ownership about expenditures and how tight to keep the purse strings, while keeping a low enough profile not to be fired during down times. Phillips' continued employment with the team doesn't matter to me; what matters is that George has the guts to make the necessary changes that are becoming so apparent to everyone outside of Halas Hall. That means a new G.M. bringing in a new philosophy to reinvigorate a franchise that has the ingredients for success (great QB, great RB, some defensive studs) except the current chef keeps screwing up the meal.
McCaskey concerns me since this is his first year, and he may not want to make waves without having support from his doorman, Phillips. Hopefully he realizes that the sooner some changes are made at the organizational rungs that exist between ownership and the players (i.e. the Buffoon Two and Mad Martz) the better chance he has of turning things around before we're searching for the next Cutler and Forte, or Urlacher and Briggs.