Coaching Hot Seat: Lovie Smith: Chicago Bears

Hey there Football Fiends! As the pre-season kicks off with Cowboys @ Raiders, GridironGoddess.net debuts a new semi-regular feature. Throughout the NFL and NCAA are a myriad of coaches on the hot seat. Some have taken a good program or franchise and run it into the ground, others inherited a mess, others just haven’t lived up to their potential. Whatever the situation, we’ll examine it on Gridiron Goddess.

First up is Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith.

Let’s be honest, Chicago is used to losing (recent big wins by the Blackhawks and White Sox notwithstanding). In fact, Chicago fans are often referred to as loveable losers. I mean, what in God’s name would Cubs fans do if they actually won the World Series? We might all first spontaneously stroke out, and then, once recovered find we have nothing left to live for. Chicago sports fans have taken the art of losing gracefully to the heights of perfection.

Look, it’s not that Lovie Smith is a bad coach. Not at all. After all, he did lead the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006. It’s just that every Bear team under Lovie has failed to live up to its potential. The quarterback situation has been dismal for decades in Chicago and Lovie has done nothing to truly solve it. Rex Grossman? Jay Cutler? You’re kidding me, right? The Running game needs help, and just when it gets going he trades away players (see: Jones, Thomas and Benson, Cedric). Those traded players (also see Orton, Kyle) go on to have great seasons someplace else. While Chicago goes on middling along at Soldier Field.

Lovie Smith was hired by the Bears in 2004, taking over for beleaguered Dick Jauron.  As expected, Lovie struggled in his first season in Chicago. Installing new offensive and defensive systems is not without its share of growing pains. Add in injuries, including a season-ending knee injury to starting QB Rex Grossman (and my feelings about Rex are well documented on this site), and you end up with a 5-11 record. But it was Smith’s first year, and it was a transitional year, and Grossman had yet to truly fuck up, so….

The 2005 Season dawned new and bright and shiny. Because if Chicago fans have one thing going for them it’s a short memory. Every year we wake up from a long off-season slumber and expect our Bears to go all the way.  It’s true. We’re incorrigible that way.  In 2005 however, Rex Grossman, the QB formerly known as Sexy Rexy, suffered a pre-season injury that caused him to miss most of the season.  Now history tells us the loss of Rex was not our biggest problem and in fact, in 2005, the Bears defense resembled the Monsters of The Midway from years gone by.  Brian Urlacher in his prime, before he was beset with all kinds of injuries, was a wonder to watch. I imagine Lovie went home and just thanked the gods of football for Urlacher, as he was the key to the whole shebang in 2005.  The Bears went on to have an 11-5 record that season and their defense allowed the fewest points in the league.

The complete turnaround of the Bears from 2004’s 5-11 record to 2005’s 11-5 record earned Lovie national acclaim, including the AP NFL Coach of the Year Award.

2006 started with a bit of controversy when Smith traded away the Bears first round draft pick (oh, the foreshadowing of 2009, oh it is painful). He then went on to draft five defensive players.  Which, OK. You have the most dominant defense in the NFL at this point in time. What you don’t have is an offense that can consistently perform. But draft defensive players, go right ahead.

Rex Grossman was once again named the starting QB for 2006 and he led the Bears to seven consecutive victories before falling apart. The Bears had a great year in 2006. They finished 13-3. They were the NFC’s top seed for the playoffs. They went to the Super Bowl, for Chrissakes. Suddenly the Super Bowl Shuffle was relevant in Chicago for the first time in a generation.

The Bears met the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI, losing to the Colts 29-17.  At this point Bears fans are expecting big things from the 2007 team, the 2008 team, from Lovie and his assistant coaches. After all, it was just 2 seasons ago this team went 5-11.

So it stands to reason that Lovie wanted a raise after this magnificent season and the great overall turnaround of the Chicago Bears franchise he engineered.  Smith was the lowest paid Head Coach in the NFL in 2006, earning just (just?!) 1.35 million. After some drama with contract negotiations and stalemates, the Bears signed Lovie Smith to a new four year deal worth 22 million dollars.  Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera left the Bears at this time as did four more members of Lovie’s coaching staff.

What baffles me is Lovie’s confidence in Rex Grossman continued into the 2007 season.  Sure, I have the benefit of hindsight, but Grossman had proven to already be three very dangerous things: injury-prone, inconsistent, and not confident. You don’t need the benefit of hindsight to know these things about Grossman even back in 2007. Under Grossman, the Bears started the 2007 season with a 1-2 record.  Smith installed Brian Griese under center who won one and lost one, leaving the Bears with a 2-3 record when he went down with an injury against Oakland. Grossman came back. Then Grossman got injured. Then Griese came back. It was a quarterback shuffle between two fairly inept ball handlers. Kyle Orton, the rookie out of Purdue, finished the season. Under Orton, the Bears won two games and lost one game. Between the inconsistencies at quarterback and the near complete lack of a running game, the Bears finished the season at 7-9 and in dead last place in the NFC North.

The grumblings amongst the Bears faithful started. But wait, we were just in the Super Bowl a year ago; surely Lovie can bring us back one more time?

In 2008, the trade madness got worse. Leading rusher Cedric Benson was let go. Receiver Bernard Berrian was let go. Brian Griese was let go. Kyle Orton was named the Bears starting quarterback and he came out of the gate running with an upset victory against the Colts.  Orton was a capable quarterback for Chicago, but let’s face it; he was never going to set the world on fire (in Chicago). The Bears started the season with two wins and two overtime losses.  The Bears failed to make the playoffs in 2008.

That’s two seasons since the Super Bowl. In neither season did the Bears manage to make post-season play.  Just want to keep you all up to date; I know this is a long one.

During the 2008 off-season the real trading damage was done. Lovie Smith and Bears GM Jerry Angelo made the BRAINIAC decision to trade away the 2009 and 2010 first round draft picks in order to get Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos.  Did anyone think that was a good idea? (Oh, right, I did, albeit briefly.) But let’s look at that Cutler trade a little closer, shall we?  In exchange for Jay Cutler and a 5^th round selection in the 2009 NFL draft, the Bears traded Kyle Orton, The Bears’ 1^st and 3^rd round draft picks in the 2009 draft and the Bears’ 1^st round draft pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.

The Bears struggled in 2009 with their fancy new quarterback and ended the season 7-9 missing the playoffs for the third year in a row.  Oh, and The Bears lost to arch rivals Green Bay twice in 2009. That is the first time in Bears history that they’d ever lost twice to Green Bay in one season.  Despite this, the Bears management made it clear that Lovie Smith would be returning in 2010.

The four-year contract Lovie negotiated before the 2007 season is up after this season.

How long will it be before the rallying cry of “What have you done for me lately, Lovie?” becomes louder and fiercer. Just what kind of success does Lovie need to have this season to ensure his job is safe? I’d say he has to take the Bears past at least the first round of the playoffs in order to even have a shot at saving his job.

Coach Lovie Smith: You’re on the hot seat.

I do wish Lovie Smith and the Bears the very best of  luck this season. The writing is on the wall though, and it will have to be a spectacular season for Lovie to save his job.