On Thursday, Michael Lombardi at the National Football Post had this to say about the Bears defensive coordinator search:
“…I’d be surprised if the Bears hire a new defensive coordinator. They wanted Perry Fewell, thought they had a commitment from Fewell and he left. Their interest in hiring a defensive coordinator was really just an interest in hiring Fewell.”
Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune expressed his thougthts a little differenly:
“Exactly when will the Bears leftover coach name his defensive sock puppet?”
The answer, it turns out, was yesterday. And neither man was far off in his assessment. The Bears chose to promote from within by making defensive line coach Rod Marinelli the “new” defensive coordinator.
What a disappointment.
Why they couldn’t have done this the day after Fewell turned them down, I don’t know. The delay has certainly made them look even worse fools in the eyes the league than the long and winding search for an offensive coordinator did. At least they were looking at candidates in the interim in that instance.
In any case, near the beginning of this process, I wrote that one of the things we’ve all suspected since head coach Lovie Smith fired Ron Rivera was that he prefers to be surrounded by people who won’t contradict him. Smith fosters this idea through his attitude with the media. He habitually stands and bristles any time anyone asks a question which challenges a statement or decision. For instance, ii is not surprising that Smith chose to release a statement rather than standing before the media to defend this decision to promote a member of the current staff rather than looking to the outside. Its not that it was inappropriate so much that it was typical for him to spend the minimum amount of time and effort possible to explain himself to the fans and media.
Though we can’t be sure, no one would be surprised if that insecurity carries over to his coaching staff and the team’s defensive philosophy. The evidence of our eyes certainly supports the idea. It seems apparent now that Smith considers people who don’t see things as he does as mutinous.
The good new is that Marinelli is someone we can all like who does fill a gap in the team persona. He is universally considered to be a guy who motivates through the power of positive thinking and a source of external motivation is something the Bears players could use given Smith’s stoic public personality. But Marinelli is not what the team needed.
I’ve heard multiple times about how the Bears are lacking talent on the defensive side of the ball. That’s fine but to imply that the defense is totally devoid of talent would be a great exaggeration. When your team exhibits weaknesses in certain areas, you need someone who can adjust the scheme to fit the talent you have. If Marinelli could do that, he’d have shown it last year with suggestions from his position as assistant head coach and if Smith could do it himself, he would have done it long before that.
I thought that whoever the Bears hired should bring back more of that creative tension that has evidently been lacking since Rivera’s departure. With Smith’s previous choice of Bob Babich and now of Marinelli (not to mention his choice of himself last season) it’s now evident that just isn’t going to happen. Smith will shuffle the names to make it look like he’s doing something substantial but the reality is that its just the same old philosophy with minimal actual change in ideas that aren’t closely related to his own.
But what’s really disappointing about this selection is what it tells us about Smith and the future of the Bears. Most people understood that one of former Bears head coach Dick Jauron’s flaws was that he was extremely stubborn. Jauron has nothing on Smith. At least Jauron erred on the side of loyalty to those around him. Smith finds scapegoats and fires assistants like the rest of us throw away used paper towels – which is fine, except that he hasn’t shown a talent for replacing them with better alternatives.
It’s fine if Smith believes that it should be his way or the highway. But if you are going to have that attitude, you have to be able to step outside yourself to properly evaluate whether what you are doing is working. Smith apparently can’t do that and even if he could, he’d be unlikely to be able to find ways to fix it. He can’t see what needs to be done himself and he’s not willing to travel far enough outside his comfort zone to accept new ideas from the outside to help.
That’s a fatal flaw that doesn’t bode well for the Bears prospects as long as Smith is in charge.