Chicago Bears: Report Card for Lovie Smith and His Coaching Staff

The Bears are now 1-2 in the NFL preseason.  Of course, my first response to this is a resounding "who cares?"

If the final outcome of preseason games meant anything to the regular season, the Lions—who are 13-2 in the preseason since 2008—wouldn't have a gone 8-40 over the same time frame in the regular season. 

Coaches put players in situations that are meant to take them to the outer limits of their abilities in order to see what each player has to offer the team.  Defensive backs are asked to man-cover without help.  Offensive linemen are left on an island.  And the regular season playbook is barely opened.

All of this makes it difficult to grade a coach's performance by normal standards.  You don't really pick on a coach for bad play calling in the preseason because you have no idea what he was looking for when he called the play, and coaches generally couldn't care less about the final score of the game.  

This is particularly true this season, when the amount of time the coaches have had to view players and their progress and schematic fit has been severely hampered.

But there are still plenty of things that coaches can and should be held accountable for, and that's what we will be assessing today.  

We will assign a letter grade to every notable coach on the Bears staff, including some that many won't know before today.

So on with the (admittedly early) judgement!

Head Coach Lovie Smith

Oh, I always hate dealing with Smith, so we'll get the big dog from Big Sandy out of the way first.

Let's preface this by saying that there are few out there who are more critical of Lovie Lee Smith than I am.  From the idiocy of allowing his ego to control the Ron Rivera situation to his obvious ignorance with the red flag, I have never had any problems filling pages with his faults.  I just wanted to get that out in the open from the get-go in the interest of full disclosure.

Smith has done an okay job this season of readying his troops with a shortened offseason.  But he has done an impressive job with the politics of the game.

He quickly took the heat off of Jerry Angelo by stating that the Olin Kreutz affair was a coaching decision.  Whether you believe that or not is up to you, dear reader, though my personal opinion is that Smith made himself the scapegoat after all of the previous heat Angelo took for the draft, the Olsen trade and free agency inactivity, particularly involving the line.  The two are tied together, and too much heat on one isn't good for the other.  

But that being said, had he not made that statement, the story would have grown longer legs and caused more of a disruption, especially in terms of coaches v. front office.  In those terms, it could have led to a catastrophe in the locker room, fueling the players' already-stated distaste for Kreutz's departure.  

Instead the story died relatively quickly, though expect a resurgence of that story if Garza, Spencer or whoever else starts at center falters, especially in the signal calling department.

There are some complaints though, specifically the challenge flag thrown in Saturday's game against the Titans.  Lovie is a players' coach, and it would seem that if a player shouts loudly enough for a flag, Lovie will give it to him.  In this case, Johnny Knox was clearly not inbounds on the reception, but Smith through the flag anyway.

This has been a consistent issue in Chicago, and while it is only the preseason, players are expected to show where they have improved, and I fully believe coaches should be doing the same.

Also, Smith must take some responsibility for the shortcomings of his defense.  We'll hit on those later, but he has to own some of that.

Taking all of that into consideration, I would give Smith a C+ for his efforts so far this year.

Quarterback Coach Shane Day

Let's get straight to business here.  The only quarterback on the roster that looks halfway decent thus far is Jay Cutler, and that has more to do with natural talent and his own offseason program than anything Day has done so far.

Caleb Hanie has looked like a train wreck so far and has appeared worse with each outing. And Nate Enderle is what he is, a raw rookie in a new and complicated system.

To be fair, Day hasn't exactly had a ton of time to work with the young QBs, but you would expect there to be at least some mild improvement in Hanie, who looked great last year both in the preseason and in the NFC championship game while working behind an inferior-performing offensive line.

Instead what we have is a young quarterback who looks like he has taken a step backward.

I can't be too harsh given the limited time, but it certainly doesn't look as though Day has made the most of the little time he has been given.  Shane Day gets a solid D for his performance thus far.

Offensive Line Coach Mike Tice

Say what you want about Tice, but that line actually looks average.  Considering that it was possibly the worst line of the last decade in 2010, that is a near-miracle.

Even in the first preseason game, the only linemen that looked like they belonged were Gabe Carimi and Chris Williams.  But this past weekend, in their second straight good outing, I found myself marveling at the improvement this line has shown.

In truth, all I really had to say to display how impressed I am with Tice's job thus far is that I think Jay Cutler may survive the season.

Tice's efforts garner him an A, and I never thought I would write that after the first preseason game.  But he adjusted beautifully and coached up these young players. I'd say that deserves an A.

Running Backs Coach Tim Spencer

Granted, coaching Matt Forte and Marion Barber isn't exactly the league's most difficult job.  

But that being said, the running backs have looked great pretty much all the way around.

Particularly Kahlil Bell, who I wouldn't have believed even had a shot to make the roster just three weeks ago.  But there he is, rumbling for yards each week and looking rather impressive with some new technique and looking physically and mentally improved.

How much of that is Spencer's doing is unknown, but to be fair to Spencer, it isn't as though running backs have been an issue of concern over his tenure, other than Ced Benson, and it was heart, not technique, that was Benson's Achilles heel in Chicago.

Chester Taylor has looked just as bad as last season in limited attempts, though.  I was willing to give Taylor a pass because of misuse, but that hasn't been the case this year.

But overall, Spencer earns a B+ for his efforts.

Tight Ends Coach Mike DeBord

DeBord is one of those unheralded position coaches around the league who doesn't get really the credit he deserves.  When is the last time you thought the Bears' tight end group was lacking?

DeBord has done his typical job again this year, with Kellen Davis, Des Clark and Matt Spaeth all looking good and the rookie TEs looking more prepared than any other rookies on the team, especially Kyle Adams.

Not that this should be much of a surprise, but DeBord gets an A.

Wide Receivers Coach Darryl Drake

Darryl Drakes' work seems to be a mixed bag.

Earl Bennett continues to improve while Kris Adams and Dane Sanzenbacher both look very prepared for rookies.

But Devin Hester, Johnny Knox and Roy Williams haven't looked good.  They've either been non-existent or, worse, can't catch the ball.

With Hester and Williams tabbed as the starters, one has to wonder what happened.

Drake gets a C- for his work.

Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz

Where do we start?  

Honestly, without knowing what his intentions are when he's calling a play, it's very hard to judge what Martz has done.

Organizing his assistants is part of his job, and I'd call that part a mixed bag.  Spencer, DeBord and Tice have been golden, but Day and Drake have been more pyrite by appearances.

The first team offense has been able to move the ball well but hasn't scored a single passing touchdown...But how much stock can be placed in scoring in the preseason?

With limited data, I see a C+ grade for Martz as being fair.

Defensive Coaches Mike Phair, Gill Bird, Jon Hoke, Bob Babich and Rod Marinelli

Frankly, I'm going to lump the whole defensive coaching staff together because they have all performed equally.

Phair's defensive line is not living up to the talent assembled.  Babich's linebacker corps looks uncharacteristically lost, especially in coverage.  Byrd's and Hoke's corners and safeties don't appear to know where they are going or where they should be and seemingly cannot communicate with one another.  At the center of it all is Rod Marinelli.

The defensive coaching staff looks bad.

This isn't like the offense where there are a ton of new or newly-moved players.  This is a veteran corps with no players on the first string who weren't in the system last year.

That's not to say that there haven't been some encouraging things happening on the defense.  Henry Melton, in particular, has looked like an immediate upgrade to Tommie Harris.

But other than the good showing against the Bills, who don't have a legitimate quarterback and have a pretty poor offensive line, the defense doesn't have much to crow about.

Now, Anthony Adams and Lance Briggs have both been out with injury.  But the biggest problems have been in coverage and quarterback pressure.  Briggs might be missed in coverage, but Adams isn't missed much in either of the above situations.

Being objective, it is only the preseason, and thus not a reason to panic.  But the coaching staff has made it mistakes. 

Based on what we are seeing so far, the defensive coaching staff gets a D- and a razzberry.  But let me note that there isn't a lot of reason to worry yet.  If the D looks this way in the regular season, then we will have reason to be concerned.

Special Teams Coach Dave Toub

Arguably the best special teams coach in the league and an annually-rumored candidate for a future head coaching job, Dave Toub has nonetheless seen better preseasons.

His usually-brilliant coverage teams have been less than sparkly.  The return game hasn't done a lot since the first preseason game against the Bills.  And the kicking and punting teams haven't exactly been great either, with Gould missing four field goals so far and the punt team allowing a block.

This is one area that is used to seeing inexperienced players fighting for a job in a new system year in and year out.

Maybe the loss of Manning, Wolfe and Davis was a bit more straining on the special teams units than was expected?  It's certainly possible.

Whatever the cause, the ST unit has been uncharacteristically bad, even for the preseason. 

Toub and his group get a D+.

Conclusion

All in all, the coaching performances seem to be a mixed bag.

That being said, it should be weighted into the conclusion that this is an extremely short offseason and these coaches haven't had nearly enough time to work with players in new spots or who are new to the team.  There were no OTA or voluntary workouts this year, and camp didn't get started until late July.

While we can only judge coaching based on actual performance, these grades need to be placed in context.

The offseason was shortened by the lockout.  We all know that.  But additionally, we are all speculating on what we are seeing.  Preseason football is a different animal and while we are looking at performance from players, we cannot know what outcome a coach was looking for on a specific play, or the match-up he was trying to evaluate when he called the play in the first place.

Winning is not the only concern in the preseason.  In fact, it isn't even one of the major concerns.

While we evaluate the coaches' performances, we must keep in mind that they are doing the same of the players and that they are calling games entirely for that purpose.

Now it's your turn, ladies and gentlemen.  Step up to the soapbox below and give us your take.  What do you think of the coaching staff's performance thus far?  Sound off below!