I'm Satisfied....................For Now!
Of course whether or not I'm satisfied has no more impact on the Bears 2012 fortunes than it does on the sun rising in the East come morning. Still, I think what can be done has been done. Going into this season it was very clear that Jerry Angelo had failed the team the coaches and the fans as far as acquiring the talent needed to keep pace with an improving NFC North Division.
What made matters worse was his attitude surrounding that failure. In training camp when asked about that failure he arrogantly challenged sportwriters to tell him who he should be signing or should have signed when the answers to that were very obvious and had been discussed for over 6 months. Then in an interview just prior to the first Lions game he threw his team and coaching staff under the bus by insisting that the talent was there and implying that the players and coaching staff were not living up to expectations.
Of course this preceded a game where the Bears offensive line, the very thing which needed offseason fixes the most, was annihilated by the Lions and that very talented Angelo free agent acquistion Frank Omiyale was benched after allowing sacks on virtually every passing play. Talk about looking like a complete asshole Jer, man I want to tell you you sure brought it on yourself that night.
The coup de grace though was deciding to pass on McNabb, not offer a trade for Orton when he found out the Broncos were ready to waive him to assure that he got him and overestimating both Hanie and Martz's ability to operate an offense that could win enough games to get us to the playoffs.
For almost all of last years and all of this year I have been a critic of Mike Martz as the Bears OC. Even though this will mean a new OC and still another offensive system for Jay Cutler the alternative of retaining Martz would only meant another year of the same. Especially with Angelo still in charge of the personnel pocket book.
I'm satisfied with the fact that Ted Phillips and George McCaskey chose to disregard dollars and do what needed doing now before the team collapsed on itself even more. I'll also applaud them for not tearing things completely apart by firing Lovie and his staff thereby giving the new GM a mandate to improve player personnel immediately knowing that he won't be distracted by the search for a new HC or have too little cap space to do the job which needs doing.
So for now this seems like enough. I'm sure there are those who would have liked to have seen Lovie gone as well but for the reasons I've given I do think not firing him too was the right move. There's a lot to be done but if they can hire their guy fairly soon there is both plenty of time and money to get the job done. Then with more of the right talent and depth in place Lovie and his staff get that shot at a championship that injuries and incompetence deprived them of this year.
I'm satisfied............for now.
