You are hereSo Lovie's Done Right?
So Lovie's Done Right?
You know, you have these delusions of grandeur of starting a new Bears blog, one that will be better and smarter than anything else out there. Then life gets in the way, work, family, etc. Then the Bears start dropping like flies into a bug zapper, the offensive line does their matador impression all year, the defense lets more guys score than the Bunny Ranch on HBO and all your enthusiam is drained out of you.
Sigh.
On a good note for blog traffic, the Bears may have their public relations ammunition to fire Lovie and Angelo after losing twice to the Packers. Not that losing to the Packers this year is such a terrible thing, like let's say losing to the Lions twice, but Lovie's proclamation of beating the Packers when he took the job could come back to bite him in the ass and give the McCaskeys and Ted Phillips a hollow talking point to fire him and hopefully Angelo.
Of course, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to fire both, starting with the inability to draft successfully, being a defensive specialist coach with a poor defense the last 2 years, having no idea how to put together an offensive line, the dearth of penalties, having no idea what a good receivers looks like, continuing to employ Ron Turner, so on and so on.
As for the game, there was some good, but let's start with the bad. There were of course the Jay Cutler interceptions.
Bad decision making + bad receivers + no run game + no offensive line = interception record within reach.
Speaking of the offensive line, as terrible as always. The Packers do have a good defense and all, but watching first rounder/left tackle of the future Chris Williams get annihilated by Clay Matthews Jr. was disheartening. What I always heard was that an offensive line needs experience working with each other and certainly the Bears lack that as they added a few new parts this year. On the other hand, clearly we saw that Orlando Pace is done as a left tackle, the Beekman/Omilaye tango was just trying to pick whether to die by poisoning or strangulation, Kreutz is just old and Williams needs a lot more talent or a lot more reps. But I don't have anything bad to say about Roberto Garza...
The defense looked well on its way to another early blowout, but they managed to hold the Packers to field goals and a late first half drive made the game interesting. Then got that big turnover in the 2nd half but were sabotaged by the Cutler pick in the second half and a terrible interference call on Bowman.
As for the good, some nice purposefully underthrown balls(better known as the Kyle Orton special) by Cutler to Knox and hero for a day Devin Aromashodu. And that's about it besides the defense not completely sucking.
Something sort of lost in the Bears season has been the rather brutal schedule they faced.
L - @ Packers, vs Packers (Probable playoff team), @ Falcons (Playoff hunt until Matt Ryan went down), @ Bengals (probable playoff team), vs Cardinals (playoff team), @ 49ers (meh), vs. Eagles (probable playoff team), @ Vikings (possible Super Bowl Team)
I'm sure there's a fancy way of looking at that, but it certainly wasn't a cakewalk this year. Of course, you'd expect if the Bears were any good to win a couple of those games at home and maybe take one of those games at Atlanta or San Francisco, but the Bears are anything but good this year.
So the Bears get the privilege of getting crushed next week at Baltimore, then two winnable games if the Vikings don't need that win at Soldier Field and the NFL whipping boys, the Detroit Lions - a team that can't even beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. 7-9(if they're lucky)...feel the excitement!!!
/end rambling.
" but Lovie's proclamation of beating the Packers when he took the job could come back to bite him"
That's the least of hs transgressions.
The red flag usage is mind boggling, yesterday was atleast the third time this season when they threw a red flag for a no chance reversal.
The sacrificial lamb grew bigger this week, and I do believe that this game cost him his job. At first it was just Turner, now Lovie and if they lose out(don't count out those Lions at home)Angelo should go too. I believe they all should have been fired after Cardinals game.
For perspective, if the kickers on Seattle and Pittsburgh make one of two makeable FG, this is a three win team.
When you said hopefully Angelo, I was inspired to grade all of his Bears drafts. I don't think he scored well.
Grading a draft is tough due to the subjective nature of what contitutes a successful selection. Expectations are different due to round, position, positional depth, team environment, and injuries. A lot of argument can be made over how to measure the success or failure of a pick.
For the sake of argument, I am going to judge each of Angelo's draft picks as either a successful or failed pick. I'd like to make a comparison to a good team, but I don't know any team as well as I do this one, so it would be harder to accurately make a determination. I am going to use “TBD” for several players and leave them out of any calculations. A 6th or 7th round pick to me has almost no expectations, so I'm going to leave them out of any calculation as well, as any contribution would be a bonus.
2009 (4 TBD, 2/3)
3 Jarron Gilbert – TBD (Redshirt)
3 Jauquin Iglesias – TBD (Redshirt)
4 Henry Melton – TBD(Redshirt)
4 DJ Moore - TBD(Redshirt)
5 Johnny Knox – Success (Key Reserve )
5 Marcus Freeman – Failure (Cut)
6 Al Afalava – Success (Starter on a lousy defense, but making contributions)
7 Lance Louis – N/A (Redshirt)
7 Derek Kinder – N/A (Cut)
2008 (3 TBD, 3/4)
1 Chris Williams – TBD(Look at the rest of the T drafted before/after)
2 Matt Forte – Success (Based on rookie year alone)
3 Earl Bennett – TBD(Can he even start for the Bears?)
3 Marcus Harrison – TBD(Key Reserve, but needs to improve)
4 Craig Steltz – Failure (Marginal Depth, not much potential beyond ST)
5 Zack Bowman – Success (Starter who looks to be improving)
5 Kellen Davis – Success (Key Reserve who has great size and potential)
7 Ervin Baldwin – N/A
7 Chester Adams – N/A
7 Joey LaRocque - N/A
7 Kirk Barton - N/A
7 Marcus Monk - N/A
2007 (4/7)
1 Greg Olsen – Success (Starter at TE, but disappointed this season, along with rest of team)
2 Dan Bazuin – Failure (Out of NFL – Injuries, but terrible pick)
3 Garrett Wolfe – Failure (Marginal Reserve – not much beyond ST)
3 Michael Okwo – Failure (Out of NFL – Another awful pick)
4 Josh Beekman – Success (Starter/Key Reserve/Heir to Kreutz?)
5 Kevin Payne – Success (Key Reserve who could succeed if allowed to stay at SS, not bad for 5th rd)
5 Corey Graham – Success (See Kevin Payne, decent depth, possible potential at Nickel, FS)
7 Trumaine McBride – N/A (had some production when filling in for injury)
7 Aaron Brant – N/A
2006 (3/5)
2 Danieal Manning – Failure (Hard to blame Manning due to position switches, but can't stay on the field unacceptable for 2nd rd pick)
2 Devin Hester – Success (ProBowl KR, Starting WR? I don't know. Good pick, switch to WR questionable)
3 Dusty Dvoracek – Failure (Out of NFL; Injuries are a culprit, but producion was inconsistent)
4 Jamar Williams – Success (Key Reserve who was slated to replace Briggs)
5 Mark Anderson – Success (Key Reserve is decent dedpth at DE for 5th rder. What happen to the rookie version?)
6 J.D. Runnels – N/A
6 Tyler Reed - N/A
2005 (2/5)
1 Cedric Benson – Failure (Showing talent with Bengals, but it didn't work in Chicago)
2 Mark Bradley – Failure (Marginal Reserve for KC, but no contribution to Bears)
4 Kyle Orton – Success (Nuff said)
5 Airese Currie – Failure (Out of NFL; guy was track star only)
6 Chris Harris – Success (Starter from 6th round? Trade him! )
7 Rod Wilson - N/A
2004 (3/7)
1 Tommie Harris – Success (ProBowl player, but lost his motivation; injuries)
2 Tank Johnson – Failure (Starter talent, but past caught up with him in Chicago)
3 Bernard Berrian – Success (Starter after being a project; current Bears miss him)
4 Nathan Vasher – Success (ProBowl contribution, new contract is a disappointment)
4 Leon Joe – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
5 Claude Harriott – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
5 Craig Krenzel – Failure (Out of NFL, one season being thrown to the wolves)
7 Alfonso Marshall – N/A
2003 (3/6)
1 Michael Haynes – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
1 Rex Grossman - Failure (Starter for a bad team, but didn't live up to first round expectations)
2 Charles Tillman – Success (best corner on team for several seasons)
3 Lance Briggs – Success (Multiple ProBowler)
4 Todd Johnson - Failure (Out of NFL, minor contributor)
4 Ian Scott – Success (Starter/Key Reserve for a few years)
5 Bobby Wade – Failure (Forced into action, but shouldn't have been playing)
5 Justin Gage – Failure (A project that was dumped too soon)
5 Tron LaFavor – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
6 Joe Odom - N/A
6 Brock Forsey – N/A
7 Bryan Anderson – N/A
2002 (2/7)
1 Marc Colombo – Failure (Mainly injuries, Bears gave up too soon, tough call)
3 Roe Williams – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
3 Terrence Metcalf – Failure (Out of NFL, worse than Omiyale?)
4 Alex Brown – Success (Key starter for some good defenses)
5 Bobby Gray – Failure (Marginal Reserve at best)
5 Bryan Knight – Failure (Out of NFL, never contributed)
6 Adrian Peterson – Success (Key Reserve at RB, ST)
6 Jamin Elliott – N/A
6 Bryan Fletcher – N/A
So that's 19 successes in 41 picks. It's pretty generous in the scoring setup and a lot of the judgments. I don't like what Angelo has done. His habit of fixating on and overdrafting marginal players (Bazuin, Manning for example), selecting injured/injury prone players (Williams, Columbo), and flat our wasting some high round picks (Okwo, Wolfe, need I go on).
It's a major disappointment that a new administration will need to improve on greatly. I think we could let the painting elephant make the selections and we'd come out ahead, so the bar has been significantly lowered.
Thanks for the research and analysis.
I think the Browns would be laughing at these picks.
THe meat of your team, so to speak, is made in the rounds 3-5 so when you do have an injury you can move a someone servicable or at best develop aa starter.
Which is where the Bears have failed miserably and this is why they are where they are and will be for another couple of years.
"Garrett Wolf, third round pick"
Jerry Angelo's GM epitaph
My pleasure. This is an article on the Steelers personnel man.
http://www.wqed.org/mag/seasonpreview/steelers-director-football-operati...
A few interesting statements:
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But ask him about his first round picks - Ben Roethlisberger, Santonio Holmes and Troy Polamalu - and you'll get a shrug. "If you miss on a first-rounder, that's inexcusable," Colbert says. Of course, you'll have to excuse many others around the NFL whose first-rounders have flopped.
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Colbert also became the school's head baseball coach and worked for Hughes at North Catholic and for Jack Butler at BLESTO, an NFL scouting service. He later became an assistant football and baseball coach with his brother Bob at Division III Ohio Wesleyan University, and his ideas of what makes a good athlete began to take shape.
"I think the one thing that you learn, no matter what the sport is - you're trying to judge people. Competitors. Character. Intelligence. And that's really universal beyond what sport it is," says Colbert.
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I like that statement about first rounders. I think we all take it as common knowledge that Angelo's high round picks are a problem.
Colombo - Fail, lot of injuries
Haynes - Complete Fail
Grossman - Fail
Harris - Success, though he's nearly done
Benson - Fail
Olsen - Success, assuming he meets his potential next season
Williams - TBD, but I think he will not be the LT we all want him to be. Not this season anyway
What a record. 2/6 on first rounders, and that's after trading one into a 2nd and 3rd rounder in 2007. I should give him 2/2 on the Cutler trade, but that hasn't worked out exactly as planned YET, though I believe it was a good move, especially for Angelo.
I've decided to put the Eagles VP of Football Operations Tom Heckert to the same test as Angelo above. I'll be relying on web research to determine successes/failures due to lack of knowledge of the team depth. Hopefully I'll post on that soon.
Aren't you a writer around here? What's that doing in the comments?
well-done.
Fire da bums already!
very nicely done. could quibble over a comment or two, but why pick pepper out of gnat shit?
hub arkush on the score this aft made a comment which never occurred to me: angelo has prided himself on being the great consensus builder when it comes to draft-day. and he solicits opinions from many different quarters. and when a choice is made, it is a group choice.
great way to deflect individual responsibility. awful way to build successful nfl club.
Thanks for reminding me dc.
I have posted, it's a must listen.
Bears make a move and cut Cato June, elevating T James Marten from the practice squad.
http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/12/with-lance-briggs-back-bear...
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/2009/12/15/holmgren-in-cleveland-m...
about football "czar" position, doesn't want to coach.
Fire da bums already!
saw this tweet, not sure if it's true
http://twitter.com/The_Heckler/status/6705954870
add 2nd round pick Ray Rice in there too as he's sure to make the Pro Bowl this year.
Fire da bums already!
I've been studying the Eagles drafts, but the Ravens would be a great apples oranges for Angelo