RealGM

I guess Jim Mora Jr., Brad Childress, Mike Singletary, and Dick Jauron are all better head coaches than Lovie. Look, I'm no Lovie fan but there's no way these guys are ahead of him.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/vi ... p?t=556480

20. Lovie Smith, Bears. A Tony Dungy disciple, Smith is the picture of stoicism. He is one of the first generation Tampa-2 guys on defense, and his group will be much better this season now that he is reunited with line coach Rod Marinelli. Smith's new quarterback, Jay Cutler, will make him and his team better.

David Haugh doesn't agree with the rankings either:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... 414.column

Rank Lovie Smith in the bottom half of NFL coaches in terms of rhetoric and not an eyebrow in Chicago would be raised. The McCaskeys would love to pay Smith by the syllable. He's no Mike Singletary or John Harbaugh, that's for sure.

But The Sporting News Today's ranking of NFL head coaches that put Smith No. 20 must have weighed nouns and verbs more than victories and paid more attention to the podium than the field.

There are 19 men considered better NFL head coaches than Lovie Smith? Remove coaches who weren't taking over new teams, and only three veterans -- Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis, Houston's Gary Kubiak and Washington's Jim Zorn -- were ranked lower than Smith.

My first reaction in seeing the online story was that The Sporting News must be trying to drive Internet traffic in the Chicago market. If that was the goal, they should have asked. All they had to do is post a mouse-click magnet of a headline that says something like, " Plaxico Burress Threatens to Take Focus Off Brett Favre in NFC North Race Bears Should Win.''

Jeff Dickerson disagrees too:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog ... =dickerson

The NFL really is a what-have-you-done-for-me lately business.

Despite leading the Bears to back-to-back division titles and a Super Bowl appearance in his first three years on the job, Lovie Smith ranks as the 20th best coach in the NFL, according to a Sporting News poll of former NFL scouts.

Ranking ahead of Smith are names such as Jim Mora, Jr., Mike Singletary, Dick Jauron, Wade Phillips and Brad Childress.

I know the Bears have missed the playoffs the last two years, but 20th seems awfully low for Smith. Ron Turner checks in as the 18th best offensive coordinator.

The Sporting News' scouts also handed out player rankings, naming Brian Urlacher the No. 21 top overall player in the league.

Didn't look to see who was #1 thru 19 but Lovie did make some questionable calls in crunch time last year and clock management is not his forte. Can't say I'm going to disagree with the ranking...

I stopped reading at... Sean Payton at no 6.

What the hell have the Saints done?

NoSkyy wrote:I stopped reading at... Sean Payton at no 6.

What the hell have the Saints done?

Get beaten by the 20th ranked head coach 3 times in 3 years

Urlacher the 21st best player in the league? Ha!

Sporting News failed hard on this one.

i hate lovie smith to death and even i'm not sure he's the 20th best coach in the league. yes, his clock management is as bad as any coach i've ever seen. and yes, his inability to accept responsibility for anything ever makes me nuts -- "credit the other team they played well." And, quite frankly, i think don't think he's a good coach at all....BUT i still would rank him higher than 20th.

and as for Urlacher being ranked so high, you've got to be kidding. Briggs is better. By A LOT. Urlacher is in the twilight of his career. Although i heard on espn1000 that he is working out like an animal right now. so hopefully he has one last really good year.

I'd put Lovie around #10 though the gap between #10 and #20 may not be all that large.

I think he's done a nice job when you consider the big picture that this team has had Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman as it's quarterbacks, hasn't had a WR ranked in the top 20 in his tenure, and made something out of Thomas Jones who was utter crap before and after arriving here. The years the defense has stayed healthy the Bears have done really well. The years they've had lots of injuries they've struggled.

However, it's tough to stay consistently good without ever having a good offensive skill position player. Look at Lovie's record over his entire tenure and then think about the fac that he's probably averaged the lowest level of talent at the skill positions in the NFL over that stretch and tell me he sucks with a straight face.

from a play calling standpoint (that includes IMO - managing your OC & DC before & during the game) I have to say I would not have argued with an even lower ranking. Our play calling and coaching cost us several games last year. It was atrocious at times. However, as a motivator/strategist and system designer I would say he's much higher. Thus when combining the two I can't really complain about him being #20.

Again - I don't know if Lovie deserves to have 19 guys ranked ahead of him but there have been mistakes that are directly Lovie's fault that have directly led to losses and the weakening of the team. I'm not in mid-season form but off the top of my head...

- the Falcons game. I'm still having nightmares over this one. The decision to squib kick versus a deep kick was just brutal. This isn't just hindsight. I think we were all yelling at our TV screens when we saw the squib. Directly led to great field position and the loss.
- Decision to let Rivera go coming off the Super Bowl year, letting his buddy Babich take over the defense. Yeah, how'd that work out ?
- Archuleta. This is on Lovie, not Angelo. Archelta was one of Lovie's guy from his St. Louis days and not only convinced Angelo to get him over but started him to terrible results. But, hey, let's lose Chris Harris to make room for the guy.
- Starting Mark Anderson over Alex Brown in '07. Lovie stubbornly kept Anderson as his starter waaay too long after MA showed he clearly wasn't anything more than a 3rd down rush guy. Brown was put back in as a starter after it was too late and quickly showed he should've been in there all along.
- This is just a general feeling and one I won't take the time for specific examples, but I think he's slow to make adjustments in the course of the game.

All this being said, I'd rather take a guy that's made a few mistakes in his career as long as he's learned from them. I think he'll take something from going with "his guys" and not make the clock management-type mistakes again. He's still got to do better making adjustments. Lovie gets a bad rap here probably because he has zero personality. His press conferences are just so vanilla and he refuses to throw his players under the bus - which is admirable - but this is a town that Ditka still owns and he was just the polar opposite on the sidelines and off.

Do you guys really think the Bears have had elite talent during his tenure here?

I think the Bears have significantly overachieved under Smith. People pick on little things without looking at the big picture.

dougthonus wrote:Do you guys really think the Bears have had elite talent during his tenure here?

I think the Bears have significantly overachieved under Smith. People pick on little things without looking at the big picture.

Accuse me of picking a nit, will you ?

Without going position by position, I'd say the only areas Lovie has had elite talent is at linebacker and special teams. So, yes, they've played over their heads. I'm probably not the only guy that was scratching his head wondering how we even got to Superbowl XLI and that's to the credit of the coaching staff.

There. I said it.

dougthonus wrote:Do you guys really think the Bears have had elite talent during his tenure here?

I think the Bears have significantly overachieved under Smith.

Agree. But that's motivation and preparation - which I think Lovie is great at. I had no doubt we would start off the season beating Indy last year - motivation & preparation. Give Lovie two weeks to gameplan & we're good. In game coaching however? na so good.