The hammer has fallen on a number of coaches one day after the regular season has ended. Most of the decisions should come as no surprise. Those fired include:
1. Andy Reid - this decision has been discussed for weeks and should come as a surprise to no one.
2. Pat Shurmur - thought he had his team playing better in the latter part of the team but with new ownership they probably wanted their guy.
3. Romeo Crennel - it was a tough year with Belcher's murder/suicide and there were much higher expectations with the Chiefs and they proved to be one of the worst teams this season so not too big of a surprise.
4. Chan Gailey - similar to Crennel, the Bills had higher expectations with some offseason acquisitions but the Bills ended up being the same old Bills and after three years Gailey needed to go.
5. Norv Turner - solid career in SD but like Reid, his time is up. They haven't gone to the playoffs the last three years and it's time for a new voice/direction.
6. Lovie Smith - after starting the season 7-1, the Pears finished 10-6 and missed the playoffs. He may have been saved if they had gotten to the playoffs but similar to Reid and Turner, it's time for a new direction. To be 7-1 and miss the playoffs is unacceptable. Adding to Lovie's record in Chicago was that he struggled to beat Green Bay. The Bears have lost eight of their last nine against the Packers and six straight. The other big issue was the Bears' poor finishes under Smith. Chicago lost seven straight December games since 2010 before snapping its skid with a Week 16 victory over the Cardinals. During Smith's nine seasons, the Bears were 17-19 in December.
Looks like Rex Ryan will stay on for the Jets. Mike Mularkey and Ron Riviera are a couple of other coaches who may get the axe.
4 comments:
None of these are a surprise except for Lovie. The Pears remind me of the playoff caliber Skins teams under Norv and Gibbs. The '99 Skins team had a great offense and almost nothing of note on defense. The Gibbs teams had solid defenses and mediocre offenses. None of those teams scared their opposition because they were incomplete.
The best Pears team under Lovie was the '06 Super Bowl team. The offense was clicking with Sexy Rexy. The D was very good and Hester made their special teams special. Since then, the Pears have dealt with strange front office moves and even stranger personnel moves. This season, they seemed to get it right, but in the end, a weak O-line, an aging defense, and a QB who has all of the leadership qualities of a turd did them in.
Sorry Pears Fan. Maybe you can bring in Gruden or someone else who can keep maximize this team's productivity for a year and make a solid run to the Super Bowl in 2013.
Add Ken Whisenhunt to list of fired coaches.
As far as the Pears, will be interesting to see what happens to them. Will be interesting to see if they re-sign the aging and oft injured Urlacher. Depending on the money he is seeking, they may (should) let him walk. Their bigger names on defense are aging (Peppers, Peanut, Briggs). Their O line is bad. Jeff Cutler is an ass. Forte has taken a beating for the last couple of years and we may have seen the best of him already.
It's an aging team with a new coaching administration about to come in. I'm sure everyone liked Lovie and he was termed a player's coach. Things have been done a certain way for the last nine years. That's going to change. Will be interesting to see what happens with this group.
Good riddance to lovie I hope this plunges the Bears into losing for the next couple of years. I thought he was a decent coach and better than who they are going to likely get to replace him. I'm really surprised with Wisenhunt getting fired. He took the perennial losing cardinals to within 2 minutes of a super bowl victory just a few years ago. It's a shame because they were a qb away from being a good team.
Lovie is a decent coach and his players (particularly the defensive ones) really liked him but starting 7-1 and not making the playoffs did him in. The fact that he couldn't beat the Packers over the years didn't help either.
Another problem is that they could never settle on an offense. Too many changes and they never were able to get things going no matter who was the coordinator.
What hurts the Pears is that Lovie has been there for nine years and has grown with many of the defensive players. It will be tough for them to have to change to a new coach at this stage of their careers. I'm sure many of them won't be too pleased. However, the Pears will be going through some turnover the next couple of years as these mainstays start to get phased out (including Urlacher, Peanut, Briggs, Peppers). Will be interesting to see who they select and how things change in Chicago.
As far as Whisenhunt, it's been four years since he took the Cards to the Super Bowl. The last three years the Cards have been 18-30 including just finishing up a 5-11 campaign that started out 4-0. That's not going to cut it in this league.
Now I believe Whisenhunt can coach and he had no QB in AZ but someone had to take the fall for a 1-11 finish and the coach is the obvious candidate. It's time for change in AZ but I expect we'll see Whisenhunt head coaching again soon.
I also expect to see Lovie on the sidelines soon as well.
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