The Bears gave Lovie a 2-year extension today that locks him up through 2013. They haven’t released the final numbers on the deal but he was making $5.5M a year under his old deal and considering he’s already one of the highest paid coaches in the league it’d be a surprise if he got much of a raise. I’m glad it’s just a 2-year extension and not a big 5 year deal since Lovie has thus far been the coaching equivalent of a contract year player.
Jerry Angelo is under contract until 2013 as well and has hinted that once that deal is up he’ll be retiring. That could be a key reason why the Bears only locked Lovie up until then since the organization could be in a position to reboot then if things flounder. Of course Cutler is also locked up until 2013.
Great news! I look forward to another year of poor clock management, player mismanagement, questionable talent evaluation, drafting, and player development, and the same old “they don’t respect us” motivational speeches.
Not to nitpick … well, okay, just to nitpick … the Vikings did win the 1969 NFL championship, which was the last pre-merger NFL title. Yeah, yeah, they lost the Super Bowl, but they were still NFL champs.
We Vikings fans have to hold on to whatever small victories we can. Even if they’re over 40 years old.
Y’know, as a Packer fan, I can’t disagree with that…but the Bears under Smith have given the Packers more trouble than they probably should have been able to, given the relative talent levels of the two teams, and the Bears defense seems to be able to get to Rodgers more than any other defense.
This is pointless. Lets start a thread about the owners lockout and no football season next year. The rich pricks are willing to risk the season to get more out of the players.
How much money do they want?
Good side. All the players will have time to heal.
The season after that, the Lions will be in charge of the NFL north. Our fragile QB will be healed and strong.
The clock management and player development is on Lovie. The rest is probably on Jerry. If the scouting department, self-scouting, pro-player evaluation and draft scouting all, could get off the short bus maybe, just maybe, the guy could be redeemed.
The Bears made a few moves today. Tommie Harris was cut in a less than shocking move. He was due more than $3M in roster bonuses and $2.1M in 2011 salary and that just too much for a guy of his contributions. I’m not sure the guy is washed up and I suspect that he’ll be playing for a while longer with another team but I understand why the Bears are ready to move on. They need to get better at the position and Tommie was just too damn tempting for this staff, he got reps and they avoided making acquisitions because of the hope that he’d regain his form.
The Bears also released Hunter Hillenmeyer who with his concussion symptoms probably ought to retire and move into the front office and journeyman OT Kevin Shaffer. The weaknesses at OT make it a bit surprising that Shaffer would be cut but the guy was nothing more than a warm body, he can be replaced for less money I suspect.
Supposedly Danieal Manning rejected a 3-year $6M contract extension which make sense. The new CBA would probably make him a UFA and he’ll command more than that on the open market. Obviously the Bears are eager to have him back if the price is right so that’s probably a positive sign so long as this offer didn’t cause animosity.
These moves were the ones everyone saw coming. We’ll see if there are any more surprising ones in the days to come.
I’m guessing few around here but me would care and are still following things like this, but Hunter Hillenmeyer issued a pretty compelling statement following his release today. You can read it’s full content here: http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2011/02/hillenmeyer_says_goodbye.html
He touches on many subjects but the most central is his experience with concussions and how it should impact other players in the league. He speaks glowingly about the Bears organization and Lovie Smith in particular. This snippet is perhaps the most compelling:
Hillenmeyer has always been one of the smartest and classiest guys in the league. A Vanderbilt grad, where he graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Human & Organizational Development and Economics, and current MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management. He was the Bears’ union rep since 2006 and many think he’ll have a future on the sidelines or front office if he wants it, maybe even with the Bears.
I was often critical of Hillenmeyer because he’s always been a bit undersized and wasn’t quite fast enough to make up for it but he brought smarts and awareness that few others could have. The Bears have moved on and he won’t leave much of a hole on the roster but I suspect that he’ll be missed in that locker room.
Breaking news: according to Adam Schefter on ESPN.com, the Packers cut A.J. Hawk. It sounds like he was due a big chunk of change (Schefter mentioned a $10.5 million “escalator” on Twitter), which I imagine was a big reason for the cut. Schefter also opined that Hawk might re-join the Packers under a restructured contract. He’d played reasonably well in '10, but I don’t know that he’s ever played up to his promise as a former #5 overall pick.
Not completely surprising. They must have some faith that Barnett is going to be healthy and there is that $10 mill, so either he agrees to something less or tries the market.
Yeah, I wasn’t surprised, either. I have a feeling that the combo of Barnett and Desmond Bishop (who played quite well in Barnett’s absence) made it a fairly easy decision.
According to totalPackers, Hawk actually will re-sign with the Packers later today. It’s allegedly a 5 year deal, not sure on the money, etc., but there was reportedly significant interest in him. Hopefully he’ll stay with the Packers, but at a bit of a discount.
This signing, if it happens, and Bishop’s signing earlier does not bode well for Nick Barnett.
He spends last year suspended by the NFL for possession of codeine, so, what does he do? Gets arrested for possession of codeine. An up and coming player on a Super Bowl winning team, with the chance to entrench himself as a starter and getting a nice paycheck. All thrown away by being a complete idiot. I doubt he’ll see an NFL football field anytime soon.
Time to start checking out potential 3-4 DE’s in this years’ draft. Bye bye Johnny. Sorry you threw a nice life away.
Loathe as I am to resurrect an old thread, even a thread involving the Packers’ Super Bowl winning season, I wanted to add one more thing.
Kudos to Bears’ 6th round draft pick JT Thomas, who took an eighth grade girl (who happens to be a huge Bears fan) to her school dance. Story here. So, as rare as it is for me to compliment the Bears (Sweetness is still the greatest RB ever, though), it seems they have at least one player on their current team I can really root for.
As much as I rip on Bears management, for the most part they do a good job of valuing (overvaluing?) character. Hopefully this is one good egg who can really play.