Last season, we asked Jerry Angelo to take a look at a few offensive lineman who were slated to come out in the draft. Though Angelo did follow our suggestion and draft Gabe Carimi, Angelo's subsequent mistakes made us realize that Jerry is beyond help.
We now turn to George McCaskey and Ted Phillips to beg for the end of the Jerry Angelo era in Chicago. The man has had 10 years to put together a winning team. It's time to let someone else take the reins of one of the league's oldest franchises.
Asking for a man to lose his job is not something we take lightly. Losing a job, no matter the circumstances, stinks, but when a man has utterly failed at his job then it's time to move on. This is one of those times. Consider:
- His inability to build the team through the draft, which is how good teams (*cough* the Packers) do it. Carimi and Chris Williams are the Bears only first-round draft pick who are still on the team. It's too early to make a call on Carimi, but Williams is a bust.
- He hasn't performed that much better in the later rounds of the draft, or did you forget about Dan Bazuin? Juaquin Iglesias? Jarron Gilbert? Marcus Harrison? All Bears draft picks, and all busts.
- His mishandling of free agents like Thomas Jones, Greg Olsen, Olin Kreutz, and Rashied Davis ensured not just that these players left town, but that they did it with a bad taste in their mouth. When older Bears alumni like Jim McMahon and Steve McMichael went to other teams, they still were proud to be associated with the Bears. Will that be true of Kreutz or Davis?
- His wasteful spending on free agents. Though Julius Peppers has worked out, do we need to mention the $7 million spent on Chester Taylor for him to gain 267 yards?
- His lack of strategy or vision when building a team. Trading for Jay Cutler was great, but a quarterback does not operate in a vacuum. He needs a line to protect him and receivers to throw to, two things that Cutler is still waiting on in his third season in Chicago. Angelo's failure to give Cutler protection is not just bad for winning games, it's bad for Cutler's health.
- Finally, the mishandling of Matt Forte's contract. The running back/sometimes receiver is responsible for a majority of the Bears offense, yet Angelo couldn't get the man a contract extension before the season started. Now, sources tell NBC Chicago that we shouldn't expect to see Forte in a Bears uniform next fall.
It is insane that the Bears would have a talent like this and let him get away. Forte molded his off-season training after Walter Payton, and now is putting up Payton-like numbers. Would George Halas ever have let Payton get away in 1983? Yet that's exactly what Angelo is prepared to do in 2011.
It's time for Jerry to go.
