Is anyone else surprised that Lovie Smith may be sitting out for a season?

[Sophia23]

http://tracking.si.com/2013/01/17/former-bears-coach-lovie-smith-may-sit-a-year/?section=si_latest

I had thought he'd be one of the first that was snatched up...

[baphamet]

i am a little bit yes but i think the biggest reason is teams are all wanting offensive minded coaches and lovie struggled with his offenses a little bit.

[Sophia23]

Just seems like his overall winning percentage is good, I'd be happy to see him in AZ but haven't even heard any rumors that suggested such...

[JohnShaft]

On his end: He's getting paid for another year, and he wants a Head Coach job.

On other teams end: Yes, I'm surprised. There's no way he isn't one of the top 32 Head Coaches in the league. Lovie will always get his teams competing. As such he should have been hired by teams tht are either perenially bad, or underacheiving. Chargers or Cardinals woulD have been good destinations. Eagles would have been a bad one.

[DenverBlood]

I'm extremely surprised.

I argue with my brother who has been anti Lovie for years. He made the ignorant comment that affirmative action is the only reason he is even being interviewed. Well he actually called it the Rooney rule but its basically the same thing. Basically stating Lovie was only even considered because teams have to interview a candidate of color.

That made me so mad.

However I think Baphemet hit it on the head. I may have underestimated how important it is to have an offensive mind in today's league. And he has proved time and time again that regardless of o coordinator he can't coach up an offense.

Me I prefer defensive minded guys like Fox and Del Rio but meh. That's the way the league is going these days. Gung ho Madden style.

Which is a funny reference these days considering Madden is no longer geared to make easy shootouts.

[baphamet]

On his end: He's getting paid for another year, and he wants a Head Coach job.

On other teams end: Yes, I'm surprised. There's no way he isn't one of the top 32 Head Coaches in the league. Lovie will always get his teams competing. As such he should have been hired by teams tht are either perenially bad, or underacheiving. Chargers or Cardinals woulD have been good destinations. Eagles would have been a bad one.

i didn't like the fit in SD personally because the chargers needed help with their offense and they are set with a pretty good DC already with a defense that actually improved last year.

although i wouldn't have complained if you told me SD had lovie smith as HC and whisenhunt as the OC, that is for sure.

[#24 Next Champ]

I'm extremely surprised.

I argue with my brother who has been anti Lovie for years. He made the ignorant comment that affirmative action is the only reason he is even being interviewed. Well he actually called it the Rooney rule but its basically the same thing. Basically stating Lovie was only even considered because teams have to interview a candidate of color.

That made me so mad.

However I think Baphemet hit it on the head. I may have underestimated how important it is to have an offensive mind in today's league. And he has proved time and time again that regardless of o coordinator he can't coach up an offense.

Me I prefer defensive minded guys like Fox and Del Rio but meh. That's the way the league is going these days. Gung ho Madden style.

Which is a funny reference these days considering Madden is no longer geared to make easy shootouts.

Yeah it is, I rack up 40+ no matter who I play

They still can't make a good football game for crap tho...too many broken plays (i.e., Counters almost always work) and even though I never use them n run nothing but realistic gameplans and plays, so many ppl play fake as hell

[JohnShaft]

Gave up on Madden a few years ago (after loving it in the days when you expected less).

A couple of things always irritated me about it, because it's crucial to the game, and they never got it right.

Specifically it was to do with the trenches.
The O-Line never blocked right, which meant that run games where routinely horrible, and you got killed if you ran outside.
And the Defensive line was atrocious because they never, ever generated a realistic pass rush. It never reflected the fact that it should come from the DE most of the time, and specifically with speed rushes to the outside.

The monopoly on the NFL licence was the worst thing that ever happened to football gaming.

[theMileHighGuy]

Very surprised. Lovie is a great coach, but that team just wasn't getting it together when it counted. Did Lovie make personell decisions or did Emery primarily make those? They neglected the offensive line there for way too long, which may not have entirely been Lovie's fault. They are in good shape with Trestman... look out for the Bears next year, he will fix that o-line.

For the most part it seems like teams with HC opennings were going for fresh faces. I honestly thought Lovie would go to the Jags but they ended up hiring Gus Bradley this morning, which in itself was a great hire for them.

[Sophia23]

I thought cutler improved when he first made the move to the bears, although that might be all in my head... I was a cutler fan when he was in Denver. I may credit the HC's with too much, but I never considered him still getting paid for a season....

Hadn't heard about the jags til now, and apparently the Cardinals just picked up the colts OC, Arians... so I guess that's it...

[bears6385]

i am a little bit yes but i think the biggest reason is teams are all wanting offensive minded coaches and lovie struggled with his offenses a little bit.

In 8 of Lovie's 9 years here in Chicago his offenses were rated in the lower third of the league, so he struggled big time on offense not just a little bit. Funny thing is it might never have come to this if he had chosen Marc Trestman as his first OC in 2004 instead of Terry Shea who only lasted one year.