Let's start with the news of the day, the abrupt release of Mark Anderson, and signing of Charles "Starcaps" Grant. As most astute and observant Bear fans would agree, Anderson has been a disappointment after his rookie season where he was effectively used as a situational pass rusher. Most Bear fans knew that Anderson was not going to touch those numbers ever again, and wouldn't be effective in the Tampa 2. There was only one problem, the one guy who DID think Anderson could be effective...is the Bears Head Coach!
Here's the worst part though, Lovie has now TWICE been proven wrong about Mark Anderson! He tried this before in 2007 when he gave the starting defensive end position to him instead of Alex Brown. Anderson was invisible throughout all of 2007 and Alex Brown was the starter again by 2008. Flash forward to the 2009 offseason, and the Bears cut Alex Brown shortly after signing Julius Peppers, with the belief that Anderson would take advantage of the single blocking he would see with Peppers drawing the double teams. Anderson responded by posting ZERO sacks and 8 tackles in 4 games.
So now the Bears are left with neither Alex Brown or Anderson, and have now resorted to signing Charles Grant, who is not only the same type of player Alex Brown is, but it still looking down the barrel of a suspension for using Starcaps, not to mention he "witnessed something" that got him arrested. Great job Lovie, way to make the same mistake twice...while you're at it, why not re-sign Tank Johnson?
If that weren't bad enough, Smith decided to further show just how out of touch he is with the current climate in the NFL as it relates to his franchise QB's health. Jay Cutler now has 3 - repeat - 3 known concussions as a player. First time coming at Vanderbilt in 2003, second time in a 2006 game against the 49ers (the last game Darrent Williams played before being killed that night incidentally), and now this past Sunday against the Giants. When asked about it, the all knowing and caring Lovie Smith said :
"It seems like he's in pretty good shape right now...There are no visual signs or anything that I can tell. He seems like he's OK."
Sounds to me like Captain Daft plans on playing Cutler next week. Thankfully, it won't be up to Lovie since Cutler needs to be cleared by both the team doctor and the independent physician in order to play. Still, for it is really off-putting to see Lovie shockingly have no clue:
1. How serious concussions are
2. How sensitive the league is handling each concussion case
3. How Cutler might have damage that Lovie himself cannot see.
Add all that up, and it make being stuck in the Lovie Smith Era even more unbearable (pun).
Don't forget the other comment from Lovie regarding the state of Jay's concussion: "It's not like he's bedridden or anything like that..."
ReplyDeleteHis comments in general about the state of this team have been very alaming recently. How ignorant/arrogant can one person- who is supposed to be in charge of this team- be?
Bernstein brought up a great point of Lovie not acting like the HEAD COACH. The fact that he didn't have the balls to override Martz on the last series before the end of the first half sunday. After Jay had gone down 9 times already, how hard was it for him to simply say "I think we run it here boys and just get into the locker room down 3-0 and not risk Jay being hit again." But no, he blantanly put the health of the franchise QB on the line by allowing retard Martz to call another 7 step drop pass play inside our own 20 yard line.
That game was disgraceful in every meaning of that word.
Great post as usual Danimal pinpointing what is wrong with Lovie Smith.
Exactly! Forgot about that bedridden comment. He really has no clue how serious this is, and hopefully now that Cutler failed spectacularly to be cleared, he gets the full gravity of this.
ReplyDeleteI actually sent Bernstein an angry text about that because when they first hired Martz, Bernstein was the same guy that said "You hire him, you get the hell out of his way, and let him do what he wants to do." Seems very inconsistent to all of a sudden be advocating getting in his way.
Not that Lovie would be wrong to do so, but it's either one or the other. Either Martz is running the offense, or Lovie is.