Chicago Bears' Players Know the Stakes for Their Coach on Reporting Day

BOURBONNAIS—The stakes for this year’s Bears season are not lost on the players, even if coach Lovie Smith prefers to change the subject.

It’s "Win One for Lovie (or else)" after three straight disappointing seasons.

“Lovie’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around and I know that everyone on this team has a great amount of respect for him as he does for us,” quarterback Jay Cutler said Thursday afternoon, as players filtered into Olivet Nazarene University on reporting day for training camp.

“He treats us well and I know that certainly guys who have been here longer than me definitely have a lot of ties with him and want to go out there for him and play well because you never know what’s going to happen this year if we don’t go out and perform—if Lovie gets to stay or not.

“So that’s definitely a question that I’m sure is in the back of everyone else’s mind. But we can’t worry about it. We’ve got to go out and play game one and just play hard.”

Smith acknowledged the team’s struggles of late while trying to avoid wearing the title of man on trial.

“We need to win for the Chicago Bears,” Smith said. “Players want to win. They want to play their best and that’s what we’ll talk about: players playing their best every time they get an opportunity to. Everything else takes care of itself, there’s no more than that.”

The Bears’ last playoff game was in Miami in February of 2007 at Super Bowl XLI. Their defense hasn’t been the same since Tommie Harris’ 2006 hamstring pull and the firing of defensive coordinator Ron Rivera after the Super Bowl.

“I mean we’ve been a long time since we’ve been in the playoffs,” Smith said. “We want to play our best football, and from what I know about, I have been in this game a little bit, I think I know what a good football team looks like. This is a good football team.“

So much is going to depend on turnovers. The defense has to force more like they did in the 2004-06 era. The offense can’t turn it over the way Cutler did in his first Chicago season with 26 picks.

“Well, you talk about the interceptions, I talk about the touchdowns,” Smith told reporters.

Cutler threw 27 of those, but eight came in two meaningless games at season’s end. At least they were meaningless games in the standings.

“Finishing up the season last year with two big wins against Detroit and Minnesota I feel like got us started on the right foot this year,” Smith said.

Yet, the team is one in the midst of so much change, it seems unlikely they they'll pull it all together for a coach-saving run. There’s a new offensive scheme under coordinator Mike Martz, a new offensive line coach in Mike Tice, and new defensive coordinator in Rod Marinelli—all former NFL head coaches.

The complicated Martz offense had players’ heads spinning at Halas Hall. Now they’ve had time to absorb some of it.

“It is complicated, I think at first,” Cutler admitted. “Once you really get into it and really learn the little details to it, I think a lot of it starts to make sense. But at first, whenever you take a look at that [play] book, you’re overwhelmed absolutely because there’s just so much information to retain.

“But I think he does a great job…he really hits the gas pedal at first and just throws as much information as he can and then he goes back over it and he starts explaining and that’s when he does some of the best coaching I’ve seen.”

“Football is football,” added tight end Greg Olsen.

But the Bears have so far to go in a new offense that demands great pass blocking because of all the seven-step passer drops. They haven’t exactly got the 1990s Dallas Cowboys offensive line. They don’t know who the left tackle will be and they’re selling everyone on Frank Omiyale moving from being an ineffective left guard to right tackle, his so-called “natural position.”

Omiyale did little to calm fears about the line when he pointed out, “I haven’t played the right side, but just glad to be back at tackle.”

He did play six games at right tackle before—as a sophomore at Tennessee Tech in 2002.

The defense appears more stable with Brian Urlacher back and Julius Peppers trying to justify his $91 million deal by sacking quarterbacks or helping teammates.

“Of course, we haven’t been in pads right now,” Smith said. “But what I have seen from Julius, when you have a dominant player like that, you know, on the offensive line a few of the guys will get double-teamed.

"You’ll have to keep backs or tight ends to chip guys.

“If you have a dominant player, it’s a trickle-down effect a little bit. Somebody eventually will get the one-on-ones that you want. We feel like we can get Julius and Tommie in some positions where they’re one-on-one and we think they’re going to win most of those battles.”

Their secondary will need the extra pass rush pressure because it’s in a state of flux. The cornerbacks switched sides and Smith offered little explanation again as to why Zachary Bowman is on the left side now and Charles Tillman the right side, other than to say, “We just felt like Zack was more comfortable on the left side, no more than that.”

With Chris Harris playing free safety instead of strong safety, where he played as a Panther and former Bear, and Danieal Manning moving from free safety to strong safety for the first time, the defensive backfield might look as confused as the Bears’ offense at times.

Experimentation and personnel gambles are actions well-established contenders can afford. Instability can be a nightmare for teams hoping to preserve a coach’s job. At least, Smith pointed out, everyone is healthy as practices start, including center Olin Kreutz and Harris.

“The Chicago Bears have the same goal every year: We want to win the Super Bowl,” Smith said.

It’s the 25th anniversary of their only Super Bowl win.

If they fail to make strides toward that goal this year, odds are good that it will be someone else coaching them during the 26th anniversary of that Super Bowl win.