In case you missed it, and that was probably the plan, the Bears announced the rest of their coaching staff Friday afternoon. They promoted Rod Marinelli to defensive coordinator, named Eric Washington defensive line coach and Shane Day quarterbacks coach. They also announced Andrew Hayes-Stoker as offensive quality control coach and Mikal Smith (Lovie's son) as defensive quality control coach.
So this is the major change Ted Phillips was talking about? You completely clean house coaching wise on the offensive side of the ball and do nothing different defensively? Marinelli is still the assistant-head coach, was a contributing voice in play calling last season and will not infuse any new thoughts or ideas into a defensive scheme that has been painful to watch since midway through the Bears' Super Bowl season of '06.
Basically, what has happened is Lovie, once again, brought in his guys (Martz and Lovie worked together in St. Louis), guys that have not had success in the NFL in close to 10 years, to turn around a team that woefully disappointed last season and is positioned to do the same in 2010.
Next season the Bears are going to be led by an offensive coordinator (Martz) that was fired by the defensive coordinator (Marinelli) when they last worked together in Detroit. To makes things even more interesting, their offensive line coach, Mike Tice, believes running the ball is key to winning games. Why should we care what an offensive line coach thinks? Because Lovie said Tice will have significant input on play calling.
The Bears have set themselves up to be as successful next season as Elmer Fudd was in catching wabbits. The difference is Elmer was meant to make us laugh.
You can listen to me talk sports every Thursday night from 6-8pm Central on www.slaminternetradio.com and read some of my other work on www.bleacherreport.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment