You can't pin this one on Lovie or Jerry

As I was watching Cedric Benson run wild in the Bengals playoff loss to the J-E-T-S, I flashed back to his time with the Bears. During his brief time in Chicago Benson was selfish, unmotivated, out of shape and a problem from draft day until his departure. I'm sure a lot of Bears fans want to blame Jerry for drafting him and Lovie and his coaching staff for not handling him properly; for not coaching him the right way. They're probably looking at what Benson did this year with Cincinnati and are wondering why he didn't come close to that type of production with us.
The truth of the matter is Lovie and Co. did everything they could to get the most out of Benson. They coddled him, handed him the #1 running back position and traded away his predecessor Thomas Jones. Lovie and Jerry did everything he could to try to get the most out of Benson...
But it didn't matter what the Bears did; Benson was simply unmotivated and unwilling to put in the work to be a quality NFL running back. I mean, the man took himself out of the Super Bowl! If that isn't selfish and unmotivated then I don't know what is.
It's amazing what a change of location can do for a player. Look at him now. He's in the best shape of his life and looks like the monster he was in Texas. He finally realized what it takes to be a top tier NFL running back, which is what Cedric Benson has become.
So no, I don't blame Lovie for Benson's tumultuous time in Chicago. And I don't blame Jerry for drafting him. If Benson would have had his head on straight coming out of college the Bears wouldn't have had to trade Thomas Jones and would have had one of the best backfields in the league.
So... even though they missed horribly on a number of draft picks, and in my opinion should have been fired after this season, Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo are not to blame for Cedric Benson's failure in Chicago.